We had a wonderful evening yesterday as we joined together in Jubilee Hall to host our KS4/5 House Music Celebration. The annual event enables students from years 10-13 to perform solo for an audience of family, friends and teachers.  The event gives the opportunity for students to gain valuable performance experience in front of an audience and an expert within the music industry.

This year we were delighted to welcome Christian Jones as our guest adjudicator.  Christian plays bass and contrabass trombone for  Opera North. Christian is a highly-experienced professional musician: He performs for concerts and operas around the world and teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music. His debut solo album, Windows, in collaboration with New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi, was released recently on Spotify.

First, we had our brilliant Key Stage 4 performers:

Ellie on vocals and piano singing What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish and Finneas, Alice on the Trumpet playing Hot on the Line by Pam Wedgwood, Hema on Violin playing Bolero by Jeno Hubay, Saachi on Piano playing Prelude by Reinhold Gliére, Bella singing Green Finch and Linnet Bird by Stephen Sondheim, Maisie on the Drum kit playing Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles and Eiliyah on the Alto Saxophone playing Little Overture by Philip Sparke.

Following the interlude we listened to thoughtful and supportive feedback from our adjudicator, Christian.

Then we excitedly listened to our Key Stage 5 performers: 

Alice on the trombone playing Handel’s Adagio and Allegro, Sara singing Good For You from Dear Evan Hansen, Zaima on Alto Saxophone playing Sonata Movt. 1 by Phil Woods, Leina on the Violin playing Sonata in E minor 1st movement by Edward Elgar, Isobel on flute playing Sunstreams by Ian Clarke and Kumbi singing Hear ye, Israel! by Mendelssohn

Christian spoke with students and provided them with positive feedback about their performances. He was very impressed with the standard of performance and the huge variety of musical styles that students had chosen to perform.  He offered lots of valuable advice about stage presence and communication with an audience.

At the end of the evening Christian had the difficult task of selecting his favourite performances, who were awarded trophies for Intermediate and Senior Musicians of the Year. Congratulations to Bella and Kumbi for their brilliant performances which awarded them KS4 and KS5 Musician of the Year. They both receive 50 House Points each for their Houses.  All the performers were absolutely amazing and performed with such confidence and accuracy.

Many thanks to Christian for joining us and thank you to all of our musicians for performing. Music is a thriving and important aspect of our school community and we love hosting events such as these so we can celebrate and encourage our students to continue to develop their musical talents. We hope to see you at our Summer Concerts, which will feature our large ensembles on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th May 2024, 6pm in QE Hall, QEGS.

Mrs K Bentham

Director of Music