Page 20 - The Malvernian - July 2024

THE MALVERNIAN
Music
Often, the Summer term tends to feel less busy after what is always a packed Spring term. However, this term has felt anything but quiet! There has still been a good deal of music-making going on, with rehearsals continuing with the College and Chamber Choir for Chapel services, the Jazz Band continued for a performance at Prize Giving, whilst it was very good to re-start our String Ensemble and start up a new Saxophone quartet.
Our final Unplugged of the year had a happy mix of familiar faces and those making their performing debuts, and we were treated to Music from Frank Sinatra to Christina Perri via Nirvana and Van Halen! It was good to have five pupils performing for the first time and so this is encouraging for next year, but it would be remiss of me not to make special mention of the Upper Sixth who have been such regular contributors and supporters of the Unplugged throughout their time at the College. They clearly have loved being part of the programme and we shall certainly miss their excellent performing.
Hot on the heels of the Unplugged was our fifth Music Makers of the academic year. The Remove were the focus of this concert with some FY and Lower Sixth performers too. There were 18 performances in total which, for a Summer term concert, was a very healthy number indeed. With a wide range of styles from Bach to Guns N’ Roses, there was something for everyone. And, with so many performers in the Remove, we can look forward to some excellent music-making in years to come.
Shortly after half-term, we had another excellent Summer Serenade. This is a concert given by pupils in the FY and Remove and, this year, we continued with our stated aim of having a diverse range of performances – this year we had 12 items of Music from the Baroque to Britpop, and even had a pupil accompanying a member of staff! This is one of my favourite events of the year as it gives us a window into our future Music-making and, combined with what we heard in the earlier Music Makers, we have much to look forward to in the coming years.
The following week we had our second Prep Schools Choral Evensong in the Chapel. Members of the College Choir joined forces with pupils from Kitebrook House and The Downs Malvern for a really lovely day of singing in our glorious chapel. The visiting staff were, once again, very complimentary about the event, saying how much they and their pupils had enjoyed the experience, with the service at the end of the day being both moving and meaningful. I am also very grateful to the College Choir for their part in it all, and I know that they, too, will have benefitted from the experience.
As in the previous two years, by way of a precursor to Speech Day and Prize Giving on the last day of term, the Jazz Band and the newly-formed Saxophone quartet presented a short informal programme of music. Again, it was really nice way to be able to round off the year in relaxed fashion.
However, it is the Concerto Concert - the evening before Speech Day and Prize Giving – that is, in many ways, the culmination of the musical year featuring, as it does, some of our senior and most
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THE MALVERNIAN