Mid-Year Concert

On May 20th, we witnessed an evening of performances that brought our school community together as one through the power of music. With the evening’s performances live-streamed over Zoom, the moment students and parents gathered in the foyer of the Performing Arts Centre, the 2021 Mid-Year Concert was already underway. The night opened with an exhilarating performance from the CGS Drumline, followed by a triumphant trumpet call from the Middle School Trumpet Ensemble. As the audience took their seats in the Auditorium, the Senior School Stage Band presented the world premiere of Insolamento by our very own Mr Johnston. Written as a reflection of the last year’s global shutdown, Insolamento is the Portuguese word for ‘isolation’, which has been carried across into the increasing instrumentation and Portuguese groove of the composition. Including performances by the Dorset String Orchestra, featuring the one and only Dr Hicks, and a debut display of talent by the brand-new Junior School Concert Band, led by Mr Day, the first half hit its climactic display of talent. Mathieu Ly’s skillful performance of V. Monti’s Csárdás accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra demonstrated how the time and effort put into music allows students to present such detailed and refined performances for the broader school community. As the concert went on, a display of student-led items was put to the forefront with gap filler items providing an entertaining display of musical comedy and talent, from the electrifying Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, performed by William Lewis, Nicholas Sarlos-Welsh, Sam Parmenter, Darby Lee, and accompanied by the fantastic Mr Bayliss, all the way to George Trembath’s rendition of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. With the second half of the evening’s display of talent and musicianship, also came a display of deceit and surprise… the Senior School Orchestra played a Hollow Knight Medley, arranged and conducted by the one and only Aidan Harris himself, without his family’s knowledge of any of this, Aidan casually strolled onto the stage and conducted the megalithic arrangement and performance, whilst his trumpet arrangement gave the brass section the opportunity to power over the orchestra through the end of our metal tubes (trumpets). As the night came to an end, the School Choir, as usual, raised the roof with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, and a heart-warming solo performance by William Lewis of You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught arranged by Mr Johnston. With lyrics that might come across a bit brazen, it is a song on how no one is born to be discriminatory, ‘you’ve got to be carefully taught’. The 2021 Mid-Year Concert was a performance by students, across the whole school, presenting the talent and musicianship accumulated over a year of lockdown, providing a display of excitement and a show of the undying beauty of music.

Daniel Watson

Captain of Music