English Schools Foundation Orchestra & Choir In Concert City Hall, Tuesday
It was the first time the English Schools Foundation brought together its top musical talent from all its secondary schools, and the near capacity audience was thrilled with the result.
Some 200 students took to the stage in black dinner jackets and evening gowns, filling the auditorium with music of as high a standard as any could expect of singers and musicians at school.
Director of orchestra Ken Haggarty (King George V School) and director of choir, Jo-Anne Trevenna (Island School), put together a challenging and culturally varied programme, from rhythmic African songs to British composer Hamish MacCunn's Concert Overture, The Land of the Mountain and the Flood, written when he was 19 years old. John Williams' score for Schindler's List provided more popular and moving fare.
The evening demonstrated the breadth of musical talent across the foundation's schools, with instruments ranging from French horn to double bass. Some of these young musicians are, no doubt, already looking beyond GCSE and A-level music exams to pursuing musical careers. This experience will only encourage them more, and enthuse those waiting in the wings for next year's musical extravaganza.
It was easy to pinpoint where the greatest orchestral talent lay in the ESF. More than half of the 80-strong orchestra was drawn from King George V, which also produced the accomplished leader of the orchestra, first violinist and soloist Adrian Liu Chi-yan. But there was no budding Charlotte Church among the student body to sing the solo in the final piece, Francis Poulenc's Gloria. Instead, it was Jacqueline Gourlay Grant, Kennedy School's music teacher, who demonstrated that her talents stretch well beyond the classroom. She is a trained opera singer who, with her stunning voice, almost stole the show.