Tag Archives: NBHS Spring Concert

Community, Concerts, Former Pupils, Life

A sense of perspective

In the frenzy of end of term concerts, Showcase etc., it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of preparation and lose sight of the big picture – the raison d’être of the job. This was remedied last night when around 30 former pupils came along to the NBHS Spring Concert – the last one for Linda Medine who has taught Music there for many years.

Joining the existing members of the Chorale on stage they performed a beautiful arrangement of Robbie Williams’ Angels – magnificently prepared and directed by Gill Casson. The sound was huge and the whole thing was very moving.

This surprise item really meant a lot to Linda – as she had meant a such lot to them – enough to come from far and wide for a lovely send off. What a nice end to the term.

Citizenship, Concerts, Ensembles, Live Events, mp3s, Pupil Performance, Recording

NBHS Spring Concert 2010

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Although the end of term finished, somewhat frustratingly, with the Knox Spring Concert having to be postponed* due to weather conditions, the NBHS Spring Concert was a great success.

The Guitar Ensemble opened their set with Choro: choro (right-click red link to download)

Then Zoe, who has worked with us extensively over the last two years, joined us for two songs by Robert Burns:

The Lea Rig (some mic noise interrupted Verse 1 and so this fades in at Verse 2): the-lea-rig1 (right-click red link to download)

The Deil’s Awa’: the-deils-awa (right-click red link to download)

Although public, in-school engagements are pretty much over for NBHS pupils this term, we are hoping to represent the school at the 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference on 28 June. Performing music of the host country at this event would be a great honour for us in addition to being a great end to the school year.

* the Knox Spring Concert has been rescheduled and will take place at 19:00 on Tuesday 20 Apr – the day we return to school

Arranging, Concerts, Ensembles, Life, Listening, Live Events, mp3s, Pupil Performance, School Life

NBHS Spring Concert

I seem to have fallen behind with the dusting 🙂 possibly due to having spent 10 of the last 16 nights in schools. Here are some of the highlights of items featuring NBHS guitarists this evening:

Guitar Ensemble Scottish Medley 2009 scottish-medley-2009

Zoe & Senior Guitarists Ca’ The Yowes ca-the-yowes-live

Zoe & Senior Guitarists John Anderson My Jo john-anderson-my-jo

I was keen to clarify, to the audience, an important nuance in accreditation. The musical arrangements were my own but in the case of the Ca’ The Yowes, Zoe had brought as much to the project as I had in creative/interpretative terms and certainly a good deal more in performance terms. My role had simply been to find the nicest harmonies I could and sprinkle notes, like so many dew drops, around the fingertips of my fine young friends in the ensemble. The melodic variation wrought by Zoe (entirely her own idea) provided, for me, the lion’s share of the transformational and affective content of the performance.

Have a great Easter, everyone!