From Brahms to Bruno Mars, 140 Musicians Thrill Audience at Summer Concert
With 140 musicians performing from Year 6 up to Year 13 in 14 different ensembles, our musicians brought the house down with a fantastic repertoire of classical and pop music.
We were also delighted to see several Year 6 girls from Junior School take part in the concert alongside their older counterparts before they join our musical family in Year 7 in September.
The concert kicked off with a lively rendition of the Overture from Carmen by Bizet followed by Brahms’ Hungarian Dance no. 1 by the Symphony Orchestra. We enjoyed For The Beauty of The Earth by Rutter from our Lower School Choir before our ever popular Bassoon Quintet had everyone tapping their feet to the upbeat Tico Tico No Fuba. Our Session Orchestra turned to Coldplay for their next piece with Viva la Vida. Some of our youngest musicians took to the stage for the excellent Year 7 Piano Trio performance of Grieg’s Norwegian Dance No 1.
Next up was the Year 7-8 Flute Ensemble, supported by Year 13 Lara & the multi-talented Miss Dunne, this time on the bass clarinet for the jazzy Flunk by Saunders. The Year 10 String Quartet of Abi, Zoe, Harriet & Amelie played a very accomplished Gabriel’s Oboe by Morricone ahead of the Senior Choir, who made a return to the pop world with Clean Bandit’s Symphony. Wind Band performed a lovely version of Le Festin from the film Ratatouille then Harmony Choir sang Adele’s iconic Skyfall theme beautifully. Holst’s St Paul’s Suite (movement 1) was the piece chosen for our wonderful chamber orchestra. Our student A Capella group led by Lewhat then had the audience clapping and singing along to both their songs, Oh Happy Day (Tuci) and Alicia Keys’ classic, If I Ain’t Got You.
Our newly–formed Vox choir showed off their skills with an amazing You are Not Alone from ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ (Pasek & Paul). Returning to the movies, our Jazz Band played a catchy version of A Friend Like Me from Aladdin (Menken) before all 140 musicians took to the stage (& the sides of the hall!!) for the finale of Bruno Mars’ Don’t Believe Me Just Watch accompanied by very enthusiastic audience participation!
The concert ended with rapturous applause, particularly for our musician in residence Miss Dunne who is leaving NHEHS to study for a Masters in Music in the USA after 6 fantastic years with us. Well done to everyone taking part, a big thank you to all our wonderful music staff and a huge good luck to Miss Dunne!
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