Our annual St Cecilia’s concert is always a highlight of the autumn term, and one that was sorely missed last year. This year, however, it was back and better than ever! With Christmas just around the corner and a chill in the air, it was an absolute joy to sit back and enjoy an evening of live music performed by our talented music students.
All of the school’s major ensembles performed, including the Orchestra of the Ouse, Chamber Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, ThunderBrass!, Rock Group, Guitar Ensemble, New Jazz Collective, Jazz Orchestra, Festival Band, Funk Band, Concert Band and the Bedford School Symphony Orchestra.
Over 130 boys performed an eclectic programme, which featured 15 arrangements, ranging from Gabrieli’s Sonata Pian’ e Forte to Stevie Wonder’s Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing to our Rock Group who rocked out Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor on the electric guitars.
Our Funk Band, who welcomed performers from Bedford Girls’ School, performed Butterfly by Jason Mraz, arranged by Lower Sixth Former Gideon Chan as part of his Music Technology A-Level. Gideon was tasked with mixing a cover of this piece, and his arrangement featured some challenging parts for the horn section as well as a demanding vocal line for him to navigate.
After enjoying refreshments during the interval, the second half followed a more traditional path, opening with Bernstein’s Candide Overture, incorporating some of the most well-known melodies from the operetta such as Battle Music and Oh, Happy We.
The audience was also treated to a superb selection of extracts from Schönberg’s Les Misérables. Led by Fourth Former Harry L’Estrange and conducted by Dominic Childs, the Orchestra of the Ouse performed all the famous tunes from the musical, such as Look Down, I Dreamed a Dream and the jaunty number Master of the House.
The finale of the night, ‘In The South’ – Concert Overture by Elgar, was performed by the Bedford School Symphony Orchestra, fittingly building to a wonderful climax to bring the concert to an end in a mood of noble triumph.
Have a browse through our photos below and you can watch the full performance here:
