Christmas at St. Albans
Rebecca Evans telling the story of the birth of Jesus
Let it snow…
On Thursday evening the snow fell and provided the stereotypical ‘traditional Christmas setting’ for our Carol Service at St. Albans Church, Wickersley. Whilst the air outside was chilly, the packed Church was full of the warmth of the Christmas spirit, where the Rev. Peter Hughes gave the opening prayers and final blessing.
The Christmas story
During the service we heard the Y7 choir in fine voice. They opened the service with once in royal David’s city, joined by the congegration. This year, music teacher Christopher Taylor then led the year 7’s in their lovely rendition of Keep the flame burning. The carols, directed by David Dixon – Head of Music, were interspersed with readings from the Bible that told the story of the Birth of Jesus.
Along with the Year 7’s we had a massed band/orchestra and organ (Graeme Simpson) to accompany as well as our community choir. The community choir led by our new music teacher, Kate Roberts gave great performances of In the bleak mid winter and Graham Kendrick’s Thorn in the straw.
David Hudson, Head teacher who read the last reading said afterwards, “the acoustics in St. Albans church are, I think, amazing and the music department did the school proud. We love bringing our students to the church to sing as it provides a wonderful experience for our students”.
Wickersley Community Choir in fine fettle
The service was recorded, as we intend submitting one of the tracks to the BBC’S Today programme who are promoting community choirs, if we are successful it will be aired on New year’s Day. A CD of the service can be ordered from the school priced £5.
Have a preview listen here:
O little town of Bethlehem (Everybody)
Keep the Flame Burning (Year 7 Choir)
Seasons Greetings
This concert rounds off our musical celebrations for 2009. We will be back after the new year with a further series of concerts for you to attend. The Music Department would like to take this opportunity to thank all the students (and parents) for all their hard work this year especially during our busy Christmas celebrations and want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and an even better new year.
Carols in the Courtyard
Once again our musicians went out this evening to spread the Christmas cheer within our community at the annual churches together courtyard carol festival. This quaint courtyard setting is the ideal venue for the festival with the Bistro serving mulled wine, coffee and mince pies to keep us all warm. This was the 4th year it has taken place and seems to get better each year. Last year we raised around £800 for the Lighthouse project and this year the retiring collection was made in aid of a number of homeless charities.
The singing was led by the Rector of St. Albans and Methodist Minister who were well supported by the many members of the Wickersley community who had braved the bad weather to share in the spirit of Christmas. Traditional readings were interspersed with the carols and were read by members of the community.
We were fortunate not to be washed out by the bad weather which held off. The event was very well attended by members of the Wickersley community who raised the roof with their singing. Many said they look forward to this event each year as it starts Christmas off with a bang!
Our musicians love this event, it is always a talking point; that concert where we freeze to death! It wasn’t as cold this year and the enjoyment was apparent on their faces as the massed instrumentalists played through the carols. For some it was their first ‘carols in the courtyard’ for others their 3rd or 4th time. It is certainly one of those events that they will never forget and was great preparation for the Year 7 carol service at St. Albans tomorrow night, Thursday 17th December at 7pm.
Cool Opera-tor
On Friday the 3rd of December, our year 10 music students worked with a professional opera singer to develop their singing technique and performance. Sian Millett, is a young professional singer based in Manchester who has worked with both local choral societies and professional opera companies since graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music last year.
During her time with our GCSE students she work with the whole class, developing their breathing, posture and singing technique. She introduced the students to concepts such as Italian Vowels and diaphragm support. These were new ideas to many of our students and will improve their class singing in our new year 10 singing group, Vox Humana.
Later on in the afternoon, Sian worked with our solo singers who are preparing for the GCSE performance exam. All the students performed in front of an audience and Sian worked individually with all the students on areas of their performance that needed working on. Many of our students were surprised at how much of a difference Sian’s quite simple suggestions made to their overall sound. Also, one big area that was worked on was communication with the audience, something that many young singers struggle with. However, it was clear that when explained and demonstrated by a professional like Sian, what an important part of performance it is and our students realized this also.
The music department would like to thank Sian for coming to work with our students, many of them will benefit from her work in their performance exam, we hope to invite Sian back later in the year to work with a larger number of our students from different years. Also, well done to all the students who performed, listened and responded to advice so well.
Champion School
We have recently been invited to become a champion School for Radiowaves, this is a prestigious accolade awarded to schools who are leading the way with school radio stations. Radiowaves host our school media broadcasting station – Wickersley Internet Radio, created and maintained by the Music Department. We have a vibrant station run by a team of students from various year groups, guided by station manager Mr C Taylor.
The station contains loads of programmes, podcasts and articles as well as our weekly EdIT news programme that is circulated to all students via projectors in form time. EdIT news was the idea of one of our star reporters Charlotte Kelly, year 10. During last year Charlotte was awarded National Reporter of the Month for June and also scooped the National Reporter of the Year award.
Click here to see some of our content. Wickersley Internet Radio
Wickersley School well represented again!
Once again this year Wickersley School is well represented at the Yorkshire’s Got Talent competition. Three of our extremely talented music students have managed to get through to the grand final, which takes place at the Consort Hotel in Thurcroft on Monday 23rd November. Emma Crowder Y12, Gemma Taylor Y10 and Georgina Arif Y11 all secured a place in the finals battling through the heats. All the girls have spoken of their delight in making it through the heats to reach the final.
There are 16 finalists who are out to win a professional recording session, on CD or DVD courtesy of the Music Factory. Competitors were invited to perform for one minute at one of the three heats at the Consort Hotel on November 1st, 8th and 15th (between 5-9pm). Winners of each heat then perform at the semi final on the evening of Thursday November 19th with the grand final being on the evening of Monday November 23rd. Tickets are available from The Consort Hotel priced £15. Each evening has been packed full of great entertainment including last years winner, our very own Rebecca Guy who recently released her debut single ‘Over the Rainbow‘ via iTunes.
Will fate strike twice?
Rebecca, currently in year 9, who won the title last year also won the Wickersley W Factor competition in the same year. This year Georgina Arif won the W Factor competition, can she repeat Rebecca’s success? Whatever happens we have at Wickersley, a growing number of extremely talented individuals who are more than capable of giving any professional a run for their money. We are very proud of their achievements and wish them all the luck in the world in their attempt to raise the title.
Let’s hope the crown comes back to Wickersley once again!
Alistair wins further Music Awards!
Pianist - Alistair Backhouse
Congratulations to Alistair Backhouse who took part in the Blackpool Music Festival in October, winning two of the categories that were held. He became the under 18’s brass winner by playing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto 2nd Movement, and the under 16’s piano solo winner by playing Movements Perpetulles by the French composer Francis Poulenc.
In February, Alistair will be taking part in the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival where he will be playing in a total of 6 classes. This involves playing for over an hour under intense pressure. This competition is very well recognised and people travel from all over the UK to take part. Generally, the people who make it as a concert pianist win a Mrs Sunderland prize at some point in their early career.
There will also be recital calls for children between the ages of 12 and 14 which will be held in a hall with a grand piano. This will given the students a chance to see what it would be like putting on a concert for the public.
75th Anniversary Celebrations
- Wickersley String Quartet
A group of our students were invited to perform at St. James Church, Clifton as part of their 75th Anniversary celebrations on Sunday 15th November. The celebration was organised and led by Graeme Simpson. The concert billed as a ‘Festival of Schools’ Music’, contained musical items from Aston Lodge Primary School, East Dene Primary school and Wickersley School and Sports College. Both primary school choirs sang wonderfully and received great applause from the large audience.
Our spot started off with the newly formed vocal group, Vox Humana, singing a Finnish Oik called ‘Ole featuring soloist Gemma Taylor. Vox Humana was created from the current Y10 GCSE Music group who have really taken to the idea of part singing. This was their first public performance as a vocal group and they performed extremely well to set the tone for the rest of our musical items.
Emma Jack, the winner of ‘Wickersley Young Musician of the Year 2009’ performed next. She gave a spellbinding performance of ‘Alabaster box’ and ‘Redeemer’ that left the audience mesmerized by her emotionally charged voice. Before each song she gave the audience an insight into the meaning of the songs, which was a really nice touch. Megh Taafe then sang and played guitar, in contrast. Heather Rose followed playing a haunting rendition of Lara’s Theme (from the film Dr. Zhivago) on her clarinet.
Daniel Waite (violin), his brother Richard (viola) together with sisters Rachael (violin) and Rebecca Evans (cello) make up the ‘Wickersley String Quartet‘. They have been playing together now for just over a year and are well established as an ensemble. They finished our spot off with a thoughtful performance of the Pachelbel Canon in D and a lively performance of the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.
We were very happy to be invited to share in the 75th Anniversary celebrations at St James Church. It made for a lovely Sunday afternoon of music making.
Christmas is coming……
The Music Department is gearing up for the Christmas rush. It is the busiest time of the year for the department. We have a lot of performances arranged in school and out in the community and we hope to see some of you at these events cheering us on in our quest to start christmas with a bang!
Our Christmas Celebration is on Thursday 3rd December at 7:00pm in the main hall. Tickets are available from Mrs S Kemp priced £5 adults/ £4 concessions, wine and mince pies are included. A raffle will take place on the night.
Carols in the Courtyard – This annual community event held in association with Churches together, this year takes place on Wednesday 16th December at 7:00pm. An evening of traditional carol singing in the quaint surroundings of the Courtyard, Wickersley. Help us bring the christmas cheer to our community.
The year 7 Carol Service at St. Albans Church takes place on Thursday 17th December at 7:00pm entrance is free, but a collection will be taken.
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