The Senior Vocal Concert was Outstanding

The Senior Vocal Concert was outstanding. I was genuinely moved by the performances of these young musicians.

Kiara opened the concert with Mozart’s “Porgi Amor”; Kiara always sings well, but her voice is now so much more full and she was able to bring out the subtle nuances of this aria. Kiara also closed the concert with fellow soprano, Clara. Their voices, accompanied by the harpsichord, worked so well together – it was a real treat. Amy performed Handel’s “He Shall Feed His Flock”. Amy sounded delightful and her diction was excellent. George really knocked me out! This was his first performance as a singer, as was it for Joe and Huw. All three of these young men were simply superb, they all produced a lovely rich sound. George demonstrated some exquisite technique, Joe’s tone quality was really outstanding - there’s a possibility of a choral scholarship at university if he works at it. Huw had us in stitches with his performance of Sullivan’s “The Policeman’s Song”, he acted the part as well as sung it, a real delight.

Clara has a beautiful voice and she produces a delicate tone but controlled and full of expression. Constance gave a very good performance of Torelli’s “Tu Lo Sai”, she shaped the phrases really well and has excellent diction too. I’ve listened to Santina and Juliette for a number of years and each time I hear them they have made great progress. Both of these young ladies are developing into excellent vocalists. Emily gave without doubt her best performance so far, a really enchanting performance of Fauré’s "Aprés un Rêve". Katie always produces outstanding performances, she has a very expressive voice. It was a real pleasure to hear her both as a soloist and when she was joined by Harriet, when they sung “Movie in My Mind” the two girls voices worked just perfectly together.

Freddie is another young man with an excellent voice. He sung Quilter’s “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal”. It’s hard to believe that Freddie is only in the 5^th Form – what’s he going to sound like in the 6^th Form? Another potential choral scholarship at university I expect. Harriet's performance was one of my favourite moments of the evening. She gave an excellent assured performance, the best I’ve heard from her so far. She sung Sullivan’s “Poor Wondering One”. It is a song which calls on the extreme high range from a soprano. Harriet, like several other performers, was suffering from a cold and there was no way she could hit the top notes, but she stayed cheerful and ended up giving a brilliant performance. Emma was in bed ill the day before the concert and I was amazed to see her there, let alone perform so confidently and maturely. Hector sung "Everglow" by Martin and Campion. This was his best performance so far, and possibly the hardest repertoire he has tackled; the song has a huge range and Hector’s falsetto was outstanding.

Alice has a very rich and expressive voice, and this was an excellent assured performance and Alice is not yet in the 6^th Form! Giovanna gave a performance which was another favourite of mine, because she was obviously very nervous, but once she started to sing, the sheer quality of her voice took over. The fact she could control her nerves to give a performance like that was inspiring. Violet sung Kander and Ebb’s “Funny Honey”. Violet had her tonsils out over the Christmas break and this was her first performance at King’s. She was superb, and gave a mature and joyful performance, the sort of voice you might hear when driving home from a concert!

My warmest congratulations to everyone involved, probably our best vocal concert in the last 13 years! A video, some audio highlights and an album of photos from the Concert can be seen below.

David Gorodi - Director of Music.