Report by Jamie G, Captain of Music
On Saturday evening the Music Department hosted their Gala Concert in St Christopher’s chapel. This was the culmination of a great deal of hard work from staff and students over the course of this term, and saw almost a quarter of the student body taking part. St Christopher’s Chapel had been transformed with staging, lighting, projection and sound that came together to create an inspiring performance venue. The Chapel was packed full and overflowed into the ambulatory generating an electric atmosphere from the outset.
The concert began with a beautiful rendition of extracts from Handel’s Messiah performed by the Symphonic Choir and Chamber Orchestra. Under the much respected direction of Mr Bews the Choruses were sung and performed with confidence, bravura and brilliance whilst the solos, performed by Oscar and Laura were sensitively executed with style, phrasing and mature nuance. The Gordonstoun Pipes and Drums then wowed the audience with various Scottish tunes under the direction of Scott Oliphant and Scott Niven. The Gordonstoun pipes and drums have swelled in size over the past 12 months to become what is now a very impressive pipe band indeed. Several smaller ensembles then took turns to display their impressive musical skills and talent from a flute ensemble, brass ensemble, jazz band and several vocal ensembles. All of these groups offered something different and refreshing and all performed to an incredibly high standard. Pim, accompanied by Jack and Andrew, impressed the audience with an original composition by Pim himself. The composition was exciting and inspiring, but their combined performance and ensemble was outstanding.
Next, the String Orchestra and Wind Band performed two extremely contrasting pieces respectively: The strings performing the Larghetto from Elgar’s Serenade with poise and focus and the Wind Band played a selection of music from the motion picture Slumdog Millionaire. The two ensembles then came together as a Symphony Orchestra to perform a number of contemporary items. Firstly, they accompanied Andrew as he performed Classical Gas with ease and virtuosity, followed by Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, fronted by Marco (vocals), Euan (Drums), Arthur (Lead Guitar), Jamie (Rhythm Guitar) and Joern (Bass) and finally the Symphony Orchestra joined forces with the Pipes to give a heart pounding rendition of the Sleeping Tune. This featured Michael and Roddy as solo pipers alongside Jamie on electric violin and Jack on electric guitar. Everyone in the audience was awe-struck as these contradictory forces came together in an explosion of sound that brought the house down.
Finally after some very kind and fitting words from Mr Burbury, our Director of Music, about Mr Bews’ forthcoming retirement following 32 years of service at Gordonstoun, the instrumental staff came together to perform as an orchestra, accompanying the Symphonic Choir and Chamber Choir singing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
In addition to being a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable concert the evening also raised money for the Music Department’s tour to Singapore and Malaysia in March 2011. The money will help fund ‘Arts’ projects for under-privileged children in Malaysia, something our students will be directly involved with when they visit next year.
Mr Burbury thanked the teachers, tech team, the students and the audience for their contributions to what was a fantastic evening but, of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work of our brilliant Director of Music himself, Mr Burbury.
