On Thursday July 4th we held the Summer Concert, the final performance opportunity for the year, as well as marking a farewell to members of Year 13. We opened with the 1812 Overture, where Mrs Jackson imitated a canon with ferocity, performed by the Concert Orchestra, who led the way for the String Ensemble, Flautissimo and Aiden Wadley and Joel Evans in Year 7 to perform some fantastic classical works to start the concert.
Guitar club sought to bridge the gap between classical and popular, after performing In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, they launched into Boulevard of Broken Dreams, featuring vocals from Jay Puranik, Jack Hadley, and Matthew Dunstan. Sprinkled in between these pieces were some phenomenal solos and duets, featuring Daniel Rowe and Karl Puranik performing Your Song and We All Fall in Love Sometimes respectively, each accompanying themselves on the piano, Rebecca Broadway performing Colours of the Wind and Hayden Cable and Ganga Jayamohan performing Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift’s duet Everything has Changed. Following Hayden and Gagna, we had the first of our newer bands which had formed for the purpose of this, The Vast, made up of members of Year 8 performing 7 Nation Army with Jay Puranik stepping in at the last minute to perform the vocals. Following The Vast, we heard from the Senior Choir, performing Ain’t No Summertime, an arrangement by our own Mrs Jackson combining the Bill Withers and George Gershwin songs together. This stunning performance was followed by the traditional song Wayfaring Stranger, in an arrangement by Stanborough Alumni Simon Davies and Billy Boulton, before the newly-formed Jazz Jam took the stage, featuring improvisational solos from Jack Holton, Alex Saunders, Florrie Humphries, Hannah Davis, Mr Parkinson, Mrs Jackson, Joe Johnson, Annabel Dunstan and Mr Craig, ending the first half with gusto!
The second half opened with the Ukulele Group, largely made up on Year 7s performing Believer by Imagine Dragons. Following a sterling performance of Someone You Loved by Mariama Barrie, Caitlin Maciver and Daniel Rowe on the piano, William Stringer and Alfie Kerr from Year 13 took to the stage to perform Dean Town + A Bit of Spice by the jazz band Vulfpeck, complete with matching sunglasses. Following them, we had a brief selection of songs from musicals, featuring the Year 12 music class performing It Only Takes a Taste from Waitress, Laura Wells and Chloe Green of Year 9 performing Apex Predator from Mean Girls, and the Uber Choir performing Waving through the Window from Dear Evan Hansen. Both Jay and Karl Puranik performed together next, giving the audience a sterling rendition of The Void by Muse, before JRM, a band formed of Year 7s played All Star by Smash Mouth. After Holly Deacon played a beautiful solo rendition of Place We Were Made by Maisie Peters, we heard from Florrie Humphries and Annabel Dunstan, performing their own composition Come Ride the Waves. This was not our only composition performed, as Mr Torindo from the maths department performed his own song Street Song, a fantastic composition ably backed up by Alfie Kerr on the drums. Following this performance, Red Night, a band formed this year of Year 9s performed a phenomenal rendition of Holiday by Green Day, with Matthew Dunstan and Jack Hadley performing vocal duties, along with choreographed dance moves!
The Summer concert is always bittersweet, as this time is used to give thanks and send off the outgoing Year 13s. This particular concert had further emotional impact, as the students had been Mrs Jackson’s first Year 7s when she started at Stanborough. Joseph Lowton, Jasmine Gaydon, Poppy Humphries, Holly Deacon, Edie Spencer, Karl Puranik, Alfie Kerr and William Stringer have been involved in ensembles, leading groups, performing solos and working with the Sound and Light team over the last few years, and will be sorely missed. The music department is so grateful to all of them, as well as all our other performers, SaLT, staff and audience who were involved in this year’s Summer Concert.
