Head's Newsletter 2 February 2018

H ouse Singing

Daniel Blaze (KM), with an extremely moving performance of Howells’ King David . Henry Studholme (L) came second, having confidently sung a lilting tune by John Jeffrys, and Milo Morrod (CG) delivered a sensitive performance of Henry Purcell’s Here the Deities , coming in third place. Unison Song was the most fiercely contested category, with the tone set by Churchill-Gordon who strode onto the stage in their shirtsleeves and performed a spirited version (with actions) of Forget You by Cee Lo Green. Darwin Wilberforce took the opposite visual approach, standing in neat rows in pristine uniform, but their singing of Noel Gallagher’s Don’t Look Back In Anger was no less spirited, and gained them second place. The winners were Drake, confidently led by Nathan Langford through a precise and beautifully sung classic, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines , in which every word was audible (no mean feat in the sports hall!) Kingsley Montgomery came third, singing Rather Be by Clean Bandit, with great dynamic variation and excellent resonance. The evening ended with Turing-Nightingale performing a hugely entertaining version of I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Disney’s Mulan. Congratulations to all participants for a fantastic evening of performances, and special thanks to the leaders of the Unison and Part Song groups, and everyone who accompanied their house on the piano or drums. Rory McKeon deserves special mention for his conducting, which was judged not only the most spirited (despite being entirely the wrong way round), but also the most mimicable, and won him the coveted Baton award.

The House Singing on Wednesday 31 January was a triumph of teamwork and musical performance, demonstrating the breadth, depth and importance of singing in the school. The evening began with the ATB Solo Song category, won by Vith Ketheeswaranathan (DW) with a subtle and beautifully characterised rendition of Butterworth’s Is my Team Ploughing? Euan O’Connor (DW) scooped second place, and made singing in French look easy, and Duncan Tarboton (R) came in third, holding the audience captive throughout his performance of Howells’ King David . Ben Gibson (TN) turned out a really lovely performance of Vaughan Williams’ Silent Noon , while Rory McKeon’s (KM) Widmung was both beautiful and appropriately giddy. Nnaemeka Anyamele (TN) closed the category with a wonderfully characterful movement from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus , which demonstrated a real understanding of the music he was singing. Turing-Nightingale took the trophy for the Part Song category, with a cheeky and light -hearted performance of Perry Como’s Magic Moments , closely followed by Kingsley-Montgomery, for whom Rory McKeon had arranged Amy Winehouse’s Our Day Will Come . Raleigh took third place with a resonant rendition of Fields of Gold . The Treble Solo Song category was won by