Twilight Concerts at St Faith’s

Performing in concerts is a great learning experience for children and helps them to build confidence, and see the results of their hard work and practice. Last week, we enjoyed two Twilight Concerts, one showcasing the Lower School and the other the Upper School. It was lovely to have such large audiences at both of these and thank you to everyone who attended and supported the children.

The first concert was a chance for some of our less experienced musicians to take centre stage. There were debut performances from Freddie and Oscar, together with a sprinkling of talented older children from Year 2. April was our oldest performer at this concert, playing a piece from her Initial Grade piano exam. A special mention to Elias who absolutely epitomised our school motto ‘I can and I will’ by having another go at a Grade 1 piano piece after things didn’t quite work out first-time round. There was also a song called ‘Something Spooky’ from our Singing Club. Sorry Mr Groves, we don’t really think you are a monster!

After an hour or so break, it was time for the 5pm concert. Amongst the many stars on show were our brilliant Wind Orchestra. They performed Spooky Blues extremely well (and even repeated it for an encore!) and I was very impressed with their timing and their efforts at the different articulations in this piece. Our Year 3 to 6 Recorder Club also took part, performing Shortnin’ Bread. Most of the children played the descant recorder but Elizabeth and Jen were playing the treble, so making a slightly lower sound. It was a shame that Freddie couldn’t be with us in both these groups due to illness. There were also many super solo performances, beginning with the infectious energy and enthusiasm of Eva! Our youngest performer was Dylan in Year 1, who didn’t want to be outdone by big brother Ethan!

Twilight concerts are a great opportunity for the children to take their first steps into public performances, develop their confidence and learn valuable skills about the important of practice, persistence and for those performing as part of an ensemble or with accompaniment, collaboration. We are lucky to have a great many wonderful musicians in St Faith’s and our Head of Music, Mr Ainsworth often talks of how privileged he feels to be able to work with them. The feeling is most definitely mutual! There will be more concerts next week!