REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2007-2008 - Pershore High School

MusicReport by Laura Brookes, Head of DepartmentIt has been another successful year for the Music Department, with many musical concerts, tours,festivals and workshops taking place, both in and outside of the school.At the start of the academic year in October, we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity tohost the Corps of Army Music. They spent the whole day working with Grade 5+ instrumentalists fromboth Blessed Edwards and our school, preparing material for a concert which took place in theevening. The event clearly had a positive impact on our pupils, as some of them are now attendingother Army Band events.In November, the Pyramid Concert took place at Pershore Abbey. This annual music event involvesbringing together all of the local feeder schools and pupils from Pershore High School, to put togethersome musical items. This year was possibly the biggest Pyramid Concert yet, with an additional localschool, Bowbrook, also taking part.Even bigger however, was the Christmas Carol Servicewhich featured over 140 pupils. After the success of theYear 8 choir introduced last year, it was decided that thesame would be done again. They performed the 1980sShakin' Steven's classic 'Merry Christmas Everyone' withthe School Jazz band and a more traditional song 'Gaudete'with the Orchestra. Some of the other choirs that featuredincluded the Sixth Form and Staff Choir and a smallensemble of Sixth Form Singers. The newly formed Year 11Boys Choir gave a memorable performance of 'He Ain'tHeavy He's My Brother', which fitted so well with this years'theme for the Carol Service which was 'Brotherhood'.Year 11 Boys ChoirX FactorThe 'PHS X Factor' ran for the second year running inFebruary and once again attracted a huge audience, alsogenerating lots of funds for the department. The standard ofthe performances this year were once again very high. In factthe judges really struggled in the interval to select only threefinalists from the eight competitors they had seen perform inthe first half. With this, four acts were selected instead of justthree. Congratulations to all of the pupils who auditioned andindeed took part. Well done to finalists, Elizabeth Crawford,Hannah Forrester, Ceri and Megan Roberts and of courseLewis Sheen, who was the eventual winner.The Friends of Pershore High School were so impressed by the 'X' Factor performances that they infact invited many of the performers to feature at the fund raising Jazz Evening event that took place inApril. Also in April was the Performing Arts Showcase which featured our three very talented ASMusic students Rebecca Davies, Elizabeth Davis and Emily Jones. Rebecca sang one of her owncompositions whilst accompanying herself on piano; Elizabeth sang the classic Prince track 'NothingCompares to You' beautifully and Emily Jones gave a stunning performance of 'Lark Ascending'.The Spring Concert in Aprilprovided a wonderfulopportunity to showcasemore musical talent at theschool. There wereperformances from theorchestra who started theevening off with animpressive performance ofSpring ConcertBizet's 'March of Carmen'.The main school choir gavestrong performances of the two popular songs 'My Immortal' by Evanescence and ' Thousand Miles'by Vanessa Carlton which were simply breathtaking. The Staff and Sixth Form choir dedicated theirperformance to Lee Turner, a fellow member of staff who has be singing in the group for well over 15years, but who will be leaving at the end of this year. The group sang a beautiful four part folk piece'Away from the Roll of the Sea'.