Together in Music

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll no doubt say it many more times, but there are occasions in life when we all think “Oh I wish I was younger”, this was another of those occasions!  When you see talented young people performing and enjoying themselves so much on stage – so envious!

From the opening song....one of my all time favourites ... ‘ON MY OWN’ from Les Miserables sung ever so well by Ruby Hill from St Peter’s High School to the final ‘Piano’ piece ‘Nocturne in ‘C’ Minor’ played by Jacob Riley from St John Rigby College ... this was a wonderful night of music, performance and song!

It is difficult at times attending concerts like this to start trying to identify individuals without doing injustice to others. There was little or no doubt that this was a real ‘collaboration’ and great ‘team effort’ with everyone giving their all, but after saying that, I do think it would be remiss of me not to highlight MY four personal favourite performances and I’m sure if you asked any other person in the audience that night they would probably come up with a completely different list...so, in no particular order....

Aoife McMahon from St Edmund Arrowsmith High School sang her interpretation of the song ‘Burn’ from the musical ‘Hamilton’ ... what a voice, what a performance! Be ever so proud young lady!

I have already mentioned this young man above.... Jacob Riley’s wonderful rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in ‘C’ Minor was amazing!  His understanding of the piece and his ability at the piano was there for everyone to see and hear... amazing performance well done, Jacob!

Aimee Day from St Mary’s High School gave us her interpretation of the Ian Axel, Chad King, Mike Campbell’s song ‘Say Something’ made famous by Christine Aguilera and what a beautiful job she made of it! Possibly a little nervous to start with, but as she got into the song... you could feel and sense the emotion; every word was ‘crystal clear’.... be ever so proud, Aimee... great performance!

Finally ‘I Know Him So Well’ another favourite song of mine from the musical ‘Chess’ made famous by Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson was sung by Grace McDivitt and Rebecca Fairhurst.  The lyrics were again ‘crystal clear’, great harmonies, sung to perfection...well done ladies, be proud!

There were many others who made this concert complete...they included three more students from St Edmund Arrowsmith High School... Annabelle Mather who sang ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’; Joshua Moore who sang and played guitar to ‘Universal Gleam’;  Patrick Dumican who sang and played piano to ‘Elastic Heart’; Ella Doherty and Hannah Goodier from St Mary’s High School sang the Taylor Swift song ‘Red’;  and St John Rigby College included four others... Max Richards-Clarke who played violin to ‘Hora-Hatikvah from Israeli Concerto by Perlman; Cora Heyes who played the ‘Horn Concerto by Strauss’ on the French Horn; Billy Malone who sang ‘Lay Me Down’ a Sam Smith number and Monique Casey who gave us her rendition of ‘Beautiful Ghost’ from the new Cats movie!

Finally many congratulations to everyone who made this concert possible from all the participating schools and St John Rigby College, you should all be ever so proud of the talent emanating from within establishments!  Finally thanks to Joshua Duffy for not only providing great sound and lighting for all the performances and but who also provided me with my own ‘ray of light’ ... thank you!

Thanks for the invitation, thoroughly enjoyed the evening... thanks to everyone who, as always, made me feel more than welcome... hope to see you all again very soon!

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