The East Barnet School Winter Concert 2023 was a huge success and gave The Princess of Wales’ Carol Service at Westminster Abbey a run for its money! The achievement of our students gave an immense feeling of pride, and it felt rather Christmassy too! Among the performers, there was a mixture of our regular musicians and some new faces which we look forward to watch grow in the future.
There was an exciting last-minute rush of ticket sales following our first day of technical rehearsals, when everything started to come together. Our students could see they were going to be part of something special and urged their friends and families to come along – and they came in their droves! The audience were great; they listened with respect then added supportive cheers and rapturous applause adding to the magical atmosphere of the whole evening.
Our Key Stage 4/5 students were truly outstanding and really inspired our younger musicians with their honed performance skills. In all, every single one of our students performed to an incredibly high standard and the Technical Team ensured the production side – sound, lighting, visuals and staging, ran like clockwork. We would like to give a special mention to some stand-out performances:
- Nuria Mahony performed a complex jazz piano version of Como Siento Yo by R GonzaÍez with such feeling and expression we were covered in goosebumps.
- Hewad Baheer supported Emily Sexty’s voice of an angel with a beautiful, emotional and very difficult accompaniment – so impressive.
- Alex Sandeman’s arrangement of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis by Shiro Sagisu was proof that he deserved the Music Award at this year’s EBS Awards Ceremony – the tune stuck in our heads all night.
- The GCSE Music group raised the roof with their rendition of Valerie which was tight, fun, lively and full of confidence – we can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
- Samuel Board and Amelie Watson-Wade reminded us all just how talented they are by performing all the parts to their numbers by pre-recording their accompaniments which were played under their live parts on the night.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Winter Concert, all who came to support, and Barnet Windows for sponsoring our magical evening!
