We were pleased to present our Winter Concert on Wednesday 19th December at the Ladywood ARC. It was an exciting time for the music department as this was the first opportunity to hold a concert at an external venue for several years. Ladywood ARC is primarily a functioning Church, but through the Heritage Lottery Fund money was provided to enable the interior of the Church to be updated and modernised to accommodate a myriad of functions. The Music Service uses it for concerts for smaller ensembles, as do several of the local choirs most notably Ex Cathedra. The venue was perfect for our Winter Concert. We had approximately 130 in attendance and with an additional 70 performers filling the space it made for a cosy winter’s eve.

The main ensembles all performed that night; both the junior and senior keyboard and guitar ensembles, choir, orchestra and woodwind ensembles. There were solos from a number of students, including Sahibpreet Bhambra (tabla), Rory Gaskin (cello), Yunchen Zhu and Ryan Xam (piano). There were duets from Robert and Karl Frater (both on guitar), Jules Singh (voice) and Rory Gaskin (voice) and also James Talib and Hamza Chaudhary. Daniel Freckleton and Hamza Chaudhary (both in year 12) stood in as the evening’s emcees. And for the first time in recent concert-history at HGS, the concert almost finished exactly at the planned time!

If you were unable to attend this time, please note that there are more opportunities to attend a musical evening in the near future. The next main event is the HGS Young Musician of the Year 2013 on 25 April 2013. In addition there is also a smaller Instrumental Progress Evening on 21 March 2013, primarily aimed at students in KS3. Come along and see what talented musicians we have.

M. Ward