December Highlights...
 Southampton Jazz Workshop win Platinum NCBF Award
During a fortnight when Southampton Music Hub won the Will Michael National Jazz Award, as well as one Southampton student being accepted into the Purcell Music School Jazz Department; there is now even more fantastic news coming out of Southampton Music Services Jazz Ensembles.
Performing at the Southern Regional Final of the National Concert Band Festival on November 30th, Jazz Workshop won the NCBF Platinum Award (out of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum) as well as an invitation to play at the National Finals at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in April 2015.
Jazz Workshop lead trombonist Harvey Tongs also won a special award for the outstanding soloist of the day.
To listen to the band's performance of "I Get A Kick Out of You" at the Regional Festival and to comments from the judging panel, click here.
|
St Anne’s School Christmas Concert
St Anne’s Catholic School held a hugely successful Christmas Concert on 15 December with a full audience of over 250 staff, parents and friends. Over 100 pupils and staff had been working hard throughout the term and the performances were an excellent showcase of the students’ commitment and dedication to the extra-curricular music ensembles.
Five choirs performed in total, including three student choirs, one student-led choir and a performance from the Staff Choir which performs annually over Christmas. Other performances included string ensembles, a flute choir, a brass ensemble and a classical guitar ensemble. There were also several opportunities for audience participation with carols for everyone to join in with and the rousing brass ensemble performance of ‘Frosty the Snowman’.
The Concert Band performed Instant Christmas, a medley of carols, and highlights from the popular film Frozen. The programme closed with a combined band and choir arrangement of John Rutter’s Colours of Christmas. The concert brought together the musical talents across the year groups and filled the audience with the spirit of Christmas.
Upper Shirley High Christmas Concert
 Each year Upper Shirley High take over St James’ Parish church
for two days in order to prepare for a very special concert, and this year was
no exception. The 2014 carol concert saw performances from the choir,
orchestra, boys’ choir, brass band, a cappella choir and a massed choral
ensemble featuring students, ex-students, parents and staff for the school’s most impressive concert to date.
The concert included numbers such as 'And the Glory of the Lord’, and traditional carols with highlights coming from the boys’ choirs rendition of
‘Little Drummer Boy’ and the harp solo of ‘Canon in D'. For many, the pinnacle point of the evening came from a piece by Handel.
The opening solo alto line showed no sense of nervousness
and the first combination of all of the voices showed the choir's ability. The choir fully embodied the
joyful mood of the piece and shared it with the church, with rising soprano
lines helping to lead the piece forward. The final perfectly plagal cadence signalled the end of months of
dedicated work and the most musical of performances.
Bitterne Park School finishes successful term for music
Bitterne Park School's music department has been firing on all cylinders this Autumn term, with visits from X-Factor star Kitty
Brucknell, the Graveney School choir (a London secondary school choir),
and Southampton Music Hub partners Cordelectra - who wowed KS3 musicians with a
performance and 1 hour workshop.
The
main event for the term was the Southampton Airport
Celebration. As part of the celebration
of their ten-year partnership with the airport, the school hosted a ceremony on Monday Nov 10. The string group entertained
visitors with some music upon arrival, which included Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the Jazz Band and Senior Choir
accompanied Brandon Chan in his rendition of Fly Me to the Moon, which received excellent feedback.
The
school ended the term on a high with their annual Christmas concert, which was a
huge success. Over 100 students from
Key Stages 3-5 took part in this event, performing in a range of extra
curricular groups and musical styles.
Vocal performances were given by Junior and Senior choirs, as well
as the newly formed Staff and 6th Form choir, who provided vocal
music of a very high standard. instrumental performances were provided by the
Jazz band, the KS4 and 5 Funk Bands, the Wind Band, the String Group and the
Samba band –something for everyone! The
standard of performances continues to develop and improve, and the quality of
solo performances this year was particularly outstanding
Southampton Music Service Ensembles raise money for Charity
Congratulations to the members of SMS ensembles Twango and Airplay for their successful collaborative Christmas Concert on 11 Dec, which successfully raised £114 for Hope of Children and Women Victims of Violence, a humanitarion organisation that has the mission to instill hope, provide opportunities, and offer support to the community of Ndejje in Uganda.
SYBB & Voxpop Choir's Christmas Carol Concert
Congaratulations are also in order for Southampton Youth Brass Band and the VoxPop Choir for their fantastic performances at the Christmas Carols Concert, hosted by BBC Radio Solent's Tim Daykin. The concert took place at the Eastern Dock's Ocean Terminal and raised money for Southampton's Seafarers Centre.
Southampton Concert Wind Band and St Anne’s
Catholic School Choir in Concert
On Dec 13, students from St Anne’s choirs performed a programme of festive music alongside Southampton Concert Wind Band at St Andrew’s Church, Southampton. The choir, under the direction of Mrs Gemma Nichols, performed a variety of songs including Bethlehem Carol, Jingle Bell Swing and This Child. They joined with the band to perform an arrangement of White Christmas, John Rutter’s Colours of Christmas, and a lively encore of Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. It was an exciting opportunity to perform with a community band and professional musicians.
Early Tweets Project Launches
On the Dec 16 a conference to kickstart the Early Tweets Music Making Project took place. A £91,000 grant was awarded from Youth Music to the Southampton Music Hub to deliver the ambitious project, which aims to deliver high quality music sessions to as many young children as possible across Southampton. Read more about the project here.
Inspire-Works Shortlisted in the Music Teacher Awards
Congratulations to Southampton Music Hub partners Inspire-works for being shortlisted as one of 5 finalists for the Musical Initiative Award in the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence for their Road to Rio project. The winners will be announced in March, so fingers crossed for them!
Southampton Students Celebrate Arts Acheivements
Former Richard Taunton Sixth Form College's BTEC Performing Arts student Hannah Morton has been awarded £6,000 from The Mayflower Theatre’s Youth bursary scheme to support her studies in the Arts. Also congratulations to Connor Swain from St George Catholic School was awarded merit for his Grade 5 singing Trinity Guildhall Exam.
|
