Head's Newsletter 16 December 2022

MUSIC PERFORMANCES

Oratorio Concert This year ’ s Oratorio Concert involved an impressive 200 performers, ranging from pupils who had joined the school and the Oratorio Trebles Choir only weeks earlier, to Old Tiffinians who have supported the choir with their marvellous singing for decades. This year ’ s concert opened with Cecilia McDowall ’ s ‘ Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo ’, which appropriately draws our attention to the ongoing migrant crisis through the eyes

of Nujeen Mustafa, a Kurdish teenager forced by war to flee her home. The Oratorio Trebles and

Children ’ s Chorus played a leading role in this performance, singing lines written especially for a youth chorus like theirs, representing the many young people affected by war. In the second part of the concert the choir performed a much more familiar work which, nonetheless, deals with many similar humanist themes. Brahms ’ ‘ German Requiem ’

replaces the conventional Latin text of the Requiem mass with poetic texts more concerned with comforting those on earth who mourn than with the afterlife. The choir ’ s, soloists ’ and chamber orchestra ’ s renderings of Brahms ’ beautiful lyrical melodies and reflective harmonies led to a moving end to the concert.

Open Concert November 2022 The Open Concert welcomed a wide range of performers, from ensembles to soloists, most of whom had independently prepared, put forward and presented their own performances. Highlights of the concert included the Cantare Girls Choir ’ s first performance in which they sang acapella the traditional Scottish ‘ Will Ye Go Lassie Go ’ along with the Fleet Foxes ’ White Winter Hymnal. The Junior Chamber Ensemble ’ s performance, the music for which remarkably they had arranged, rehearsed and directed themselves, included more festive music in the form of ‘ The Snowman ’ theme, along with Bach ’ s Air. The School Rock Band concluded the Concert with songs by Adele, Coldplay and the Beatles. All pupils are invited to

perform in the Open Concerts, which are open to groups and individuals of all ages and musical abilities. The notable variety of solos performed in this concert ranged from Brahms and Copland to Elvis and Queen.