A Night at the Movies: showcasing Sedbergh’s emerging musicians

On the eve of the half-term break, we enjoyed a fantastic first major concert of the year in Powell Hall. An annual event, our ‘A Night at…’ concert had a movies theme this year, and we were treated to a host of performances from ensembles and soloists in a transformed Powell Hall.

Our orchestra opened the concert, with music from The Lion King and The Hunger Games amongst others. This year has seen one of the biggest and youngest intakes of new musicians – especially in our strings section – and it was wonderful to see them perform with such confidence.

Over the past couple of years, our Pop Collective has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of Mr Norman and Mr Sykes, and all of the five bands featured throughout the evening with a variety of songs from Mustang Sally to You’re so vain. Our U6 band did a great cover of Hotel California, which included a brilliant guitar solo by Christa.

We had a smattering of super soloists – Daisy, Holly and Oliver all adding to the vocal solos, and our Big Band were on sensational form at the end of the concert – boding well for the upcoming annual evening of Jazz & Swing, which returns to Powell Hall on 8th February.

However, a real highlight of the evening was the involvement of dozens of pupils who had never graced the stage before. This applied not only to the whole of Y9, who joined in with Another Brick in the Wall alongside one of our bands, but also our Show Choir and Male Voice Choir. These non-auditioned choirs have enjoyed an incredible resurgence this year, with 80 pupils across the two groups. They brought a wonderful energy to their performances under the enthusiastic guidance of their conductors, and it was so good to see so many Sedberghians engaging with the creative side of their personalities.