The standard of performance at this year's Inter-House Music Festival was incredibly high, writes David Gorodi, Director of Music.
The junior soloists kicked off the competition, some excellent singing from Angel and Amy, and although Holly put in a superb performance the winner was Freddie from Old House who sung What a Difference a Day Makes. The Senior Solo Round was a real battle with some of our top music scholars fighting it out. Tom and Felix were very close, but it was Ella from Priory House who won the round with a beautiful performance of Dvorak’s Song to the Moon. The Ensemble Round was always going to be a tight competition with Arion House, Priory House and New House fighting it out for the top spot. In the end New House won this round with a great performance of Sh-boom, I know the adjudicator loved the fun that the boys obviously had as well as the tight harmony.
The evening's house song performances were great; I personally thought Lyon House was the best boys' house until I heard New House. During rehearsals in the previous week, New House were pretty weak, somehow they had transformed into a tight male choral group with some sections of the music in close harmony and indeed they would have won the House singing with 40/50 if it weren't for Arion House who just pipped them with 41/50. Arion were great, tight harmony, excellent diction and performed with a real sense of purpose. When all the points were added up from all the rounds the overall winning house was New House. New House were two points ahead of Arion House, who were the winning girls' house; Priory House came in closely behind in 3rd place. My congratulations to all involved for a very impressive Inter-House Music Festival. A video of the highlights from the day can be watched below, along with there being two photo galleries to browse.
David Gorodi - Director of Music