Spring Concert (2)

On Thursday the 23rd the music department was proud to present the spectacular second Spring concert entitled ‘Around The World’. The concert featured around 150 pupils from Year 7 up to Year 13 and thrilled the packed audience of parents, friends, teachers and governors of Presdales school.

The concert started with the ever popular Little Big Band performing three Jazz standards from around the globe, including Fly Me To The Moon – which was indeed out of this world! The Senior Choir then performed Freedom ’90 in tribute to George Michael, followed by a touching rendition of The Abolition of Slavery by Bob Chilcott, a poignant setting of words by Charles Bennett that reflects on one of the most significant events of our time. The school’s concert band concluded the first half with a roaring piece called At A Dixieland Jazz Funeral which features our very own Dixieland combo of Carrie Craig (year 11) on Clarinet, Beth Marshall (year 13) on Trumpet, Claire Barker (year 13) on Trombone, Maddie Bryan (year 13) on Tuba and Lydia Silcock (year 12) on Drums. Celtic Ritual, a mesmerising piece for concert band, finished the first half in a thrilling display of the concert bands’ skill and finesse.

The Junior Choir began the second half with Maddie Bryan (year 13) conducting a fun version of the traditional Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho that, from the look on their faces, the Junior Choir thoroughly enjoyed singing! The orchestra then brought us Leroy Anderson’s Blue Tango, and a roaring rendition of the Bavarian Ein Schnapps. The string group, which is made up of beginners to grade 8 and beyond string players, brought us a refined performance of Warlock’s Capriol Suite, adding a touch of class to the evening’s proceedings. Bella Voce, our auditioned choir, performed the thrilling Las Amarillas by Stephen Hatfield. This tricky acapella piece hails from Mexico and challenged our singers to clap, snap and stamp whilst singing the feverishly complex melodies and harmonies. It was a real treat for the eyes and ears.

This year’s finale saw all performers from the evening join together on stage for The Circle of Life. Azaria Gayle (Year 8) began with the famous Zulu solo whilst the combined orchestra, string group and concert band accompanied. The Senior Choir were already gathered on stage and, during the introduction, the Junior Choir arrived singing from the back of the hall. The performance was spectacular and received a standing ovation from the audience – it was the perfect way to end one of the best concerts Presdales School has seen in many years.

Miss Mapplebeck

Circle of Life Workshop

On Monday 20th March, Gary Hind, the children’s musical director for the West End hit musical The Lion King, came to Presdales to lead a workshop for the orchestra, concert band and choirs. Miss Cheetham had planned and arranged a special finale, the Circle of Life from the Lion King, for our “Around the World” themed concert on Thursday 23rd March, so the opportunity to meet and work with Gary to ensure the concert finale would knock the audience’s socks off was not to be missed.

First, Gary worked with the Junior and Senior Choirs. Since he knows Circle of Life so well, Gary could tell us what all of the Zulu words meant and how to pronounce them properly (even if the meanings weren’t exactly as exciting as we thought they would be – “It’s a lion, yes it is a lion”.) He gave us some pointers to improve our performance of the song: to use good diction, to smile and to use our facial expressions to make it look more interesting. Gary also helped the Senior Choir with some harmonies in the chorus.

Next, Gary spent half an hour working with the orchestra and concert band. Even though they had many long notes to play, they had to make them as exciting as possible to create the amazing Lion King atmosphere.

For the final part of the workshop, the massed choirs, concert band and orchestra came together to play or sing with each other for the first time. After the first play-through, Gary explained to us how dynamics are very important in the Circle of Life and we had to emphasise them as much as we could. The final practice, conducted by Miss Cheetham, sent shivers down our spines and we knew we were ready for the concert. On the night, with the microphones and lighting, the concert finished to rapturous applause, a standing ovation and smiles on everyone’s faces.

Charlotte Waring, Year 7

On Friday 17th March, the Year 8-10 Presdales Spanish learners gathered in the hall for an exciting Spanish live theatre experience. The aim of the afternoon was to enhance our Spanish listening skills and learn new words from the performance of the play – all in Spanish! Some of us also had to answer quick-fire questions that came our way during the performance, which was exciting – if a little nerve-wracking! The storyline followed Carmen Tecles García on her birthday as she tried to meet up with her cousin María, a cycle courier in beautiful Barcelona. Carmen thinks that María has forgotten her birthday but there is actually a fun surprise planned at the end – a feast María would never forget!

However, on her way to meeting María (just missing her every time), Carmen comes across many strange people, including: a fortune teller, a watch seller, a tourist looking for directions, swindlers, news reporters, buskers and a very helpful policeman; all portrayed magnificently by the actresses. In her journey, she comes across some of Barcelona’s most beautiful attractions including La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Plaça Catalunya and Plaça d’Espanya! She even has a rather bumpy journey on the metro and gets a lift from a policeman. During the performance, we were given the opportunity to get up and dance onstage, and to converse with the actresses during an interesting and interactive Spanish television news report.

In our lessons before the performance, we were provided with a booklet that consisted of an introduction to the city, buildings, culture and characters as well as some key vocabulary we would need to decipher what the characters were saying. It provided a breakdown of the scenes and a brief synopsis of the play that allowed the Spanish learners to follow the story as much as possible. As well as this, there was a map of Barcelona, so that we could track Carmen’s journey. In addition, it was full of interesting activities that allowed us to reflect on the play as an experience, and exercises to practise our translation, cultural knowledge and writing skills.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience as it improved my ability to interpret what the characters were saying and I learnt lots of new vocabulary that I will be able to use further on in my Spanish learning career. On behalf of all of the Spanish students here at Presdales, I would like to say a big thank you to the theatre production cast that performed for us, and the Spanish department for organising a very enjoyable and educational day for the students.

Ayesha Unadkat, Year 9

On the basis of her fantastic achievement in the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge this year, Grace Farrell, Year 10, has been selected to attend the UK Mathematics Summer School. She will be attending St Anne’s College, Oxford, for the week long course this summer.

On Tuesday the 14th March, 4 girls from years 8 and 9 (Emily Mayes, Elisenda Henderson, Leanna Rhodes and Rebecca Fletcher) participated in a UKMT Team Maths Challenge held in Bancroft’s School. There were 4 rounds of different sets of questions, varying from asking for the sum of certain primes to finding the distance between two houses when given two times and a difference in speed. This was made all the more intimidating by the 28 other (mostly private) schools who participated, out of which we came 11th, and the overall large, old, and impressive nature of the school building itself. However, the last challenge of the day wasn’t mathematical at all- it was finding our way out! Many thanks to Mr Beckley who organised the training sessions before the event, and took us there too.

Rebecca Fletcher, Year 9

A feast of fairy tales was presented to enthusiastic audiences at Presdales School on Wednesday 22nd – Friday 24th February, 2017.

Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of the tales provided opportunities for girls throughout the school to work together to produce an imaginative and lively cluster of plays. Audiences found themselves moving from venue to venue to watch three different plays, passing among menacing trees who murmured, ‘The trees are not your friends…’ as they did so.

Hansel and Gretel was staged in a magically transformed gym, where a starlit sky hung low and the winter cold of the story was suggested by lighting. The story was performed in binary, with two Hansels, two Gretels, two weak fathers – and two bitter, cruel mothers. The cast picked up lines skilfully as now one Hansel spoke and now the other, keeping the pace brisk and the audience enthralled. Two evil witches, played by Amber Moylan and Amelia Acheson, cackled with delicious menace and threatened cannibalism – until outwitted by a pair of cany Gretels (Emma Roberts and Jessica Hancox). A brace of Hansels, confidently portrayed by Ella Walsh and Emily Wilson, led the way to safety, leaving the audience comfortably believing in ‘happily ever after’. The stylised stage and costume allowed the cast to move fluidly from woodcutter’s cottage to forest to the witch’s sugary home, while story books were transformed in the twinkling of an eye to birds flying about the actors’ heads.

The story of Ashputtel, more familiar to British audiences as Cinderella, took place in the appropriately darkened Drama Studio, where the hapless Ashputtel, played by Sophie Brown, was taunted and bullied by her stepmother (Emily Murphy) and not two, but three stepsisters with beautiful faces and thorny hearts (Holly Davidge, Emily Lomas and Madison Hunter). Ashputtel’s magical assistance came from a wonderful tree growing from her mother’s grave and suggested by lights and leaves growing up the studio wall and curving over the heads of the audience. The Prince’s pursuit of Ashputtel was exactly as expected – but any comfortable, nursery snugness was driven right out as the desperate step-sisters allowed their mother to cut off toes and heels in order to cram their feet into the tiny, glittery shoe. Still more shocking was the blinding of the wicked step-sisters as punishment for their cruelty!

The final play, staged in the hall, was Snow White with two Snow Whites sensitively performed by Sage Farrant-Barnes and Micaela Addison-Kemp. The evil queen was represented by three actors (Elena Simou, Sophie Sadler and Connie Robinson) who repeated each other’s words to give the impression of a crescendo of menace. The seven dwarfs proved rather bossy – but sweetly protective. When at last justice caught up with the evil queen, it proved unexpectedly vicious: she was issued with iron shoes and forced to dance herself to death!

Audiences exclaimed over the darkness of the fairy tales and were delighted by the polished performances they had seen. The production was enhanced by atmospheric music created by Emily Murphy, Gracie Leenders, Emily Wilson and Safia Sipi. The play, produced by Miss Sally Ward, Ms Anna Hobbs and Miss Louise Chapman, was Miss Ward’s first production at Presdales since taking over as Head of Drama – and we look forward to the next one.