Concert Season at Wilson's
In the last five school weeks, musicians at Wilson's have performed in a magnificent seven concerts!
The 'season' kicked off with the final of our annual House Music competition towards the end of last term, which saw Hanchen (Year 7) awarded the top spot in the Junior competition and Michael (Year 13) crowned the overall Young Musician of the Year. A week later, our most senior musicians performed their solo recitals, 8-minute programmes that constitute the performing component of their A level Music qualification. Another week later, and Mr Hann led a concert of solo performances by our senior singers. As has become traditional, the evening culminated in special performances by the Year 13s and the Barbershop Ensemble.
At the very end of term, we had our Spring Concert. The first half of the concert included lively performances by our various wind bands, Wilson's Sinfonietta, Clarinet Ensemble, and the Junior and School Choirs. The second half opened with a beautiful rendition of Panis Angelicus by the Chamber Choir, which was followed by a full performance of Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' by Wilson's School Symphony Orchestra. This was a demanding piece for the orchestra, with virtuosic solos for the woodwind, French horns, and percussion, as well as tricky effects for the strings. Evan (Year 13) provided expressive narration, and on stage, the characters were represented by puppets created by Old Wilsonian, Nicolas. Students from our Drama Department learned the challenging the art of puppetry to bring these impressive figures to life. Dramaturgical assistance was provided by Old Wilsonian, Autumn, scenery by artists in our Year 9 GCSE cohort, technical assistance by Sachin (Year 10), and lightening by Ben (Year 11). A work of this scale takes a great deal of effort, and the Music Department would like to thank everyone involved for their considerable contribution and unwavering commitment.
The very start of this term saw the return of the Year 7 Showcases. Every student in Year 7 performs in two showcases each year: one in the winter and one in the spring. Students in forms B, C, and D performed on Wednesday, and G, H and S performed on Thursday. The audiences were delighted by the range of solo, small group, choir, and wind band performances, with both evenings culminating in an new arrangement by Mr Kramer of Taylor Swift's Shake It Off. This certainly got everyone dancing in their seats!
Finally this week, the Chamber Concert brought together a range of smaller ensembles, including three string quartets (two of which are comprised of students in Year 7 only!), two guitar ensembles, our folk group Skiaull, and woodwind and brass groups. String Sinfonia gave a powerful rendition of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins and Cello, featuring Mr Lissimore on the harpsichord, and on violin, George (Year 7), Keynes (Year 8), Lewis (Year 10), and Rohan (Year 10), and on the cello Weldon (Year 8). Barbershop led by Mr Hann performed a beautiful arrangement of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ with poise and delicacy and showed the strength of the voices with Sarah Quartel’s ‘Wide Open Spaces.’ The evening culminated with another energetic arrangement by Mr Kramer of the Mario Theme ‘Jump Up, Superstar!’ for the Odyssey Big Band, featuring soaring vocals by Antonio (Year 13).
Well done to all of our wonderful musicians — you’ve done yourselves proud! Thank you to our music staff for their expert guidance and support, and thank you to everyone involved in making these events run smoothly and successfully!
