26 February 2021
The Lower School performances in today’s streamed concert came on the date scheduled for the termly lunchtime informal concert that coincided with Mr Jenkins’ Lower School assembly. The recorded performances were viewed online with Lower School boys at the usual time, but it was a great opportunity to share with our community what would normally have happened in the Amey Theatre.
This concert was planned well before in advance and many were recorded by the boys during half term by way of a half term challenge set by their housemaster. It was fabulous that this concert gave us an opportunity to hear a wide range of music played by talented musicians representing woodwind, brass, percussion, strings, piano and voice.
Woodwind was represented by Noah Coombs on saxophone in Thelonius Monks’ Blue Monk. It was great to see such strong progress from Noah in only a short time since starting the sax last year. Gregor McVie flew the flag for brass with a plucky rendition on the trumpet of the Imperial March from John Williams’ music from Star Wars, a performance bound to please a certain someone who is a great fan of the Star Wars franchise!
We heard two outstanding drummers – Edmund Kimber and George Blumfield in Jimi Hendrix’ Fire and Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover performances – performances notable for both sophistication and virtuosity. Our string players included Harrison Wong (cello) in Saint-Saens’ The Swan, Harold Lethaby (violin) in Shostakovich’s Romance from The Gadfly and Alex Wan (cello) in Arbeau’s Mattachins, all played with confidence and musicality. Bertie Smith sang Ruth B’s Lost Boy with impressive maturity, conviction and sensitivity.
There were some great piano performances, too, from Benedict Donald – Wedgwood’s Shark Soup, Callum Alderman – Gillock’s Holiday in Paris, Freddie Galbraith – Williams’ Happy, Elliot Liddle – Mier’s Opening Night Jazz, Charlie Scott – Crunchie Flakes Swinging Along and Samuel Price – Giaccino’s Incredits. Thanks to Mr Treadaway’s masterful mixing our final performance came from the Open Mic Group (Bertie Smith, Nikhil Harie and George Blumfield) with Red Chilli Peppers’ Can’t Stop!
Our thanks to the boys for such an enjoyable concert of music-making, for their creativity and resolve during Lockdown and to Mr Nick Lloyd for so brilliantly putting together the recording.
