News
A new, fresh and revolutionised Spring Concert
On Thursday 19 May, a new, fresh and revolutionised Spring Concert was held in the Gallery for the first time since the pandemic.
The Gallery was filled with over 200 people, who had come together to celebrate the incredible talent of our students over two hour-long sets of varied and exceptional performances.
‘In 2021, our Carol Concert and Spring Concert had to be held virtually on YouTube out of necessity,’ said Head of Music, Mr Mowle. ‘Even our summer festival that year, V in the Plaza, was significantly limited in terms of capacity by COVID restrictions, so it was a joy to host this event with a real, live audience in attendance.’
‘We had choir performances from our Junior, Senior & Chamber Choirs,’ continued Mr Mowle. ‘For the first time, we welcomed students from Invicta and SST to perform as part of the Concert Choir, a group which has brought together music students and teachers from each school. Our bands performed innovative acoustic arrangements of contemporary Pop, Rock and Jazz classics, and our students performed stunning solo pieces on trumpet, classical piano, violin and voice.’
As well as performing numerous other songs, Year 13 student, Morgan, performed one of his own compositions. ‘I wrote it in August last year,’ said Morgan. ‘It’s called ‘All The Clouds’ and proved to be one of the hardest songs I’ve ever written, not just in terms of lyrical content, but also the melodic lines and chord sequences. The song itself is a metaphor for losing control over your life and feeling that the world is ending when really it’s not.’
‘When the song was played live - with the guitar ambience and the drumming in the background - it sounded really professional. I’m so proud to have had the opportunity to showcase what I’ve written to such a large capacity of people. The song wouldn’t have sounded as good if it wasn’t for the help from Mr Mowle, though. He added little embellishments and riffs throughout the song with his Helix which aided my piano singing and vocals.’
Throughout the night there were a great many superb performances. ‘A special thank you must go to Mr Diaper who made the event look and sound incredible!’ said Mr Mowle.
‘The way the concerts are changing to keep up to date with the times is very clever and intuitive,’ said Morgan. ‘I’m sure it will bring in bigger and broader audiences for future events at the school.’