House Music

On the last day before the half term break the two houses met in the JSB to compete for the House Music Cup. Following auditions by 61 pupils, a short list of soloists had been drawn up and the two choirs, one of Angles and the other of Saxons, had been working hard to perfect their vocal performances.

This year’s adjudicator was Michael Nowland, who has recently joined our team of peripatetic music teaching staff as teacher of cello. Having completed a performance degree at Birmingham Conservatoire, he has performed with The New English Chamber Orchestra, The Heart of England Chamber Orchestra, Queen’s Park Sinfonia and has appeared within the orchestral ensemble several times on the BBC Songs of Praise programme.

During the programme the audience enjoyed music from a wide range of instruments including vocals, piano, wind, brass, string and drums. The pieces played were also very varied consisting of folk, classical, pop and musical theatre. The House Choirs learnt two separate songs. The first being With a Little Help From My Friends and the second Yellow Bird. Mr Nowland commentated on the quality of the choirs adding that children have the best voices because they are so pure. 

Following the renditions Mr Nowland spoke to the children. He congratulated both choirs, enforcing how important it is to join a choir and the benefits that can be gained from such an activity. He thanked the soloists as a group and praised the high standards of their renditions. Having told Harry that he had smashed We Will Rock You Mr Nowland commended Hermione for her lovely vocals, and admired how Prèma had controlled a difficult rhythm. He thanked Finlay for singing Somewhere Out there, as it is one of his favourite songs, and applauded Yuqing for her version of Tango Passions which he said had ‘caught me straight away’. Having noted that Vivienne had played her piece without any music, Mr Nowland praised Aidan for his wonderful performance and finally he admired Rosa’s bow. All the soloists worked very hard to perfect their pieces and should be very proud of the amazing standards that they achieved.

However, this was a House Music Competition and as such has to have a winner. Following an impromptu drum roll by the assembled year groups it was time to announce the winning house. Angles retain the cup!

You can see performances by both choirs and Aidan's rendition of Bach's Sinfonia No.15 on our new Youtube channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSfwx3sA6d1F6Qyqk1zfjQ