Well, I’ve been doing Christmas Concerts in schools for over 40 years now but this is my first ever ‘Online’ version of that classic annual event.
What a strange and difficult season it has been for our musicians across the world. (What a strange time for Mrs Holland to join the music department – she hasn’t even met any of our musical ensembles yet!) But the creativity and ingenuity of so many groups, to ensure that they ‘got some music out there’ to the fans and public, has been truly fascinating.
The Turton Music Department was no different; so while we have been unable to rehearse at all in school during the last 2 terms, the students have worked at home and in their instrumental lessons to bring you a collection of some of their current musical exploits.
0:00 - Aimee Cove - Waltz Mystique 1:38 - Molly Hayes - Let It Go 6:07 - Corus Brass - A Sway in a Manger 9:15 - Lucy Haworth - Red Square March 9:57 - James White - Film Noir 11:34 - Harriet Wright - Waltz in C 12:40 - Anna Haworth - Scherzando 14:09 - Corus Brass - Carol of the Bells 17:03 - Lucy Begg - Let's Face the Music and Dance 18:58 - Alfie Blundell - Love is an Enigma 21:32 - Zach Iddon - Rhapsody in Blue 22:45 - Amber Taylor - Take Me To Church 27:29 - Ella Brown - Silent Night 28:46 - Corus Brass - On This Night 33:37 - Luke Inglis - Funky Dude 35:56 - Lucy Begg - In Memoriam 38:30 - Libby Roberts - Imagining the Life 42:00 - Molly Hadfield - Winter Daydreams 44:25 - Jazz Band - Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
We are desperately hoping that next term will see things start to calm down, with the possibility of rehearsals and concerts beginning to filter back later in the spring term. We still have a concert tour to Austria pencilled in for July 2021 – but whether this is further postponed will depend on the rules we face later next term. We will need to rehearse and prepare, and of course, at present, we are extremely rusty. Lots of our new year 7 musicians haven’t even had chance to join our ensembles yet and so we look forward to that point when they can get themselves fully immersed in the musical life of Turton.
Thank you to all our musicians who have beavered away at home creating recordings to present to you for this online concert. There are performers from all year groups represented. The online concert seemed an ideal chance to present a number of coursework compositions by some of our Year 11 students, and I hope you will find their creativity and ability both fascinating and impressive.
I myself have recorded a Christmas CD with Corus Brass in aid of the Manchester Children’s Hospital. So there are a couple of tracks included from that project. Hopefully it gives the students a chance to see (and hear) that I also compose and perform and don’t just simply stand in front of the school bands waving my arms around all the time! If you wish to support the charity and order a CD the email address to contact is administrator@corusbrass.org
Thanks go to Mrs Holland, Mr James and Mr Hindle for all their musical assistance this term.
From all of us – we wish you a happy and safe Christmas.
John Parkinson & the Music Department
