Well, it’s been just over two weeks since our first Spring Festival and we’re still on a major pride high! Every one of our students brought their absolute best and put on an unforgettable day of performances! So here’s how it all went down…
First up, was The Spring Sing. Kicking off at 2pm, this was undoubtedly the busiest concert of the day and had the Bowdon rooms bursting at the seams! With performances from Absolute Belters, The Music Place Choir and Little Belters, all singing three songs each, it was a choir-athon like no other and they absolutely smashed it! Breaking up the choral loveliness, we had Holly Farmer and Nikhita Keyan who sang their solos effortlessly with our staff band. With time for only one rehearsal with the band, Nikhita and Holly were total pros! The finale of The Spring Sing saw all three choirs come together to sing The Beatles’ With a Little Help from My Friends and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Well done Spring Singers!
Our next concert began at 4pm (no rest for the wicked) and it was the turn of the Young Performers. We had drummers, we had violinist, we had vocalists, we had pianists, we had woodwind, and every performer knocked it out of the park! With performances from beginners and higher grade players, our young performers showed that there’s beautiful music to be made at any stage of your learning. Thanks to everyone for playing and for creating such a lovely atmosphere as an audience.
5:30pm saw the arrival of The Adult Performers and, again, we had a great range of instruments and pieces- from Poulenc to Aretha Franklin to Richard Hawley! Big shout outs to Rachel Leigh, Ant Waters, George Nash, Paul Fitton, Zoe Porter, Lucy Jeffrey, Clare Withey, Alex Moss and Gym Mines for their stunning performances, and a big thank you to our Adult Jazz Band for rounding us off with a good boogie. Though they might have a few more years on our younger performers, for many of our adults, this was their first time performing in public, and they all did amazingly!
Our last concert of the day was the Grand Finale which showcased our Music Place bands for the first time this year! First up, we had LCC who wowed the crowd with their rendition of Supertramp’s Breakfast in America and Foster The People’s Pumped up Kicks. LCC are our youngest Music Place band but played with maturity and next level confidence. Second band up was Surge (some excellent band naming going on) who smashed Led Zepplin’s Kashmir and Alanis Morrisette’s Uninvited. Our final band of the day, George’s Fault, blew us all away with Sing a Simple Song, Something, and Come as you are. Ambitious song choices all round from our bands, and every performance a winner!
Our finale also included stunning vocal performances from Scarlett Reid, Freya Gilbert and Cai Alty (who performed one of his original songs) as well as our Sing it! choir. Sing it!, brought to you by The Music Place and Little Belters, is our most recently formed choir for 11-16 year olds. This fresh new choir is always looking for new members and is open to all voices (it’s super fun… and they have matching hoodies.)
And that’s the whole shooting match! Along with the 30-Day practice-athon, The Spring Festival raised £990 for 42nd Street! Thank you so much to Clare for hosting, to Richard for accompanying and to our staff band for playing with our soloists and choirs. Big love to The Bowdon Rooms for providing such a great space and, of course, a huge thank you to all our performers, it was a truly lovely day and we are so proud of all of our students. It feels special to be performing again.
Have a lovely week everyone!
