Winter Music Concert
Another very successful St. George’s School Concert took place in the Neven DuMont Hall on Friday 30 November. The annual Winter concert began with a packed Neven DuMont Hall hearing the St. George’s School Chamber Orchestra perform the main theme from Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible. The Chamber Orchestra has been growing steadily over the years and has made impressive steps. Many audience members commented on just how good they are now sounding. We know there are still some pupils out there who play instruments, but are not yet in the orchestra. Why not?!
Solos from some of our talented pupils followed, including Sienna on piano and then older sister Alisha playing Shostakovich’s Romance from The Gadfly on violin and then one of her Grade 7 piano pieces by Finnish composer Selim Palmgren. This was followed by Constantin playing challenging pieces by J.S. Bach and Shebalin. The solos were finished off with our two IB Music pupils, Cindy and Jason. Cindy performed a lovely interpretation of Frank Bridge’s Canzonetta on piano, a piece she recently performed for her Grade 8 piano exam. Jason then gave a very commanding performance of Prokofiev’s famous Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet.
The first half was brought to an end with a choir of pupils from Years 5 and 6 led by Mr. Davoll. A very stirring performance of the moving carol I heard the Bells on Christmas Day was followed by the upbeat The Christmas Song made famous by Nat King Cole. Their final piece, Kokoleoko, a traditional African song, showed off some of the excellent part singing pupils in Lower School have been working on.
The second half continued with solo performances. Year 8 pupil Jishnu performed a traditional Indian work on Tabla and A Level Music student Joelle gave a lovely interpretation of Hallelujah by the recently deceased Leonard Cohen. The choir, making a return to our concerts, performed Diamonds. Another returnee was the Rock Band, an ensemble that has been absent from recent concerts. Rousing performances of Hymn for the Weekend and Christmas Is All Around were very well received. Finally, as is tradition, the concert was rounded off with the St. George’s School Jazz Band. An upbeat Blue Bossa with some great individual solos from the front line was followed by Strayhorn’s Classic Take the A Train, made famous by the legend that is Duke Ellington.
Another excellent concert showing off the hard work from our pupils has (almost) brought another busy term to an end. The Music Department would like to thank particularly Ms Riley, Mrs Mardus, Ms Neilson, Mrs Johnson-Wolf, Mr Coolen and Mr Fraser for giving up their time to rehearse with the pupils and perform in the concert. Their input, with the hard work from the pupils, has really helped the Department grow over the years and their support has been greatly appreciated! Two final and very important thank yous needs to go to Mr Cooke and the VI Form team for their work in serving refreshments and ushering audience into the concert, and Head of Art Mrs Rich for the great photographs! Plans are already in place for the summer concert and we hope to see you all there…
