Year 7 Concert and the annual Axminster Strings Concert

News - Oct 23

CGS musicians have been busy recently, with two concerts taking place within a week!

Thursday October 15th saw the whole of Year 7 perform as a single massed choir; over recent weeks they have been learning the Congolese folk song Banaha in the form of a three-part round. Some pupils looked into the translation of the text and came back with a report that we were singing 'At the foot of the pineapple tree, Yaku ladles a banana into his aunt’s red hat'. This only seemed to spur on their efforts. The choir concluded the concert with a performance of the first movement of Karl Jenkins' Adiemus, which culminated with them splitting into four parts for a stunning finale. The middle of the concert saw the following pupils performing solos with tenderness, flair and a real commitment to their music - well done to all again, it was a spectacular achievement!

Poppy J - Salut d'Amour, Elgar (violin)

Matthew L - A Little Song, Kabalevsky (piano)

Evelina H - Can't Catch Me Now, Olivia Rodrigo (voice)

Rowan C - Hunting the Hare, trad. ('cello)

Aoife C - Chez le Docteur, Satie ('cello)

Ellie S - Memory, Lloyd webber (voice, accomp. Grace H)

Clemmie W - Sprkling Splashes and Smooth Waters, Arens (piano)

Rory M - Jupiter, Holst (clarinet)

Skye S - The Village in May, Hisaishi (piano)

Amelie B - Caro Mio Ben, Giordani (voice)

Aoife G - The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber (clarinet)

Taylor H - Icarus, Ann (piano)

Martha L - The Muppets Theme, Henson (piano)

Grace H - Csardas, Monti (violin)

Thursday October 22 saw 14 string players travel to Axminster to take part in the weekly Minster Recital Series. The String Ensemble performed Vivaldi's Autumn and the Gavotte from Grieg's Holberg Suite with clarity and precision with the minster's acoustic lending a beautiful warmth to their sound; with so few rehearsals in which to prepare for the concert it really was an achievement to perform at this level.

Also performing were Poppy J (Y7) and Grace H (Y7) who reprised their solos from the Year7 concert, to see two new Year 7 pupils performing twice within two weeks, and at such a high standard is a huge achievement and bodes well for the future of strings at Colyton - in fact there are so many string players now, in the younger years especially, that choosing soloists is becoming a real challenge.

Also performing were Toby S (Y12) whose rendition of Bourrees I & II from Bach's Suite No. 3 in C (arranged for viola) showed a real maturity and deep understanding of Baroque repertoire and Rosanna C (Y8) who performed the Allegro from Breval's Sonata in C on the 'cello - the richness of her tone and how much her playing has matured since her last solo performance was brilliant to hear and she approached this deceptively tricky piece with real deftness and delicacy. 

Our thanks to all who performed, to their teachers and to Mr Brimelow, Mr Brewer and Mr House for their help with accompaniments and rehearsals.