Orchestra Day and Last Night of the Proms Concert
01 Sep 2014
Farlington’s Music department held a full day of musical fun for musicians and non-instrumentalists alike. The day allowed the girls to explore and celebrate the orchestra and be inspired to take up an instrument.
The Prep School pupils were given an introduction to some of the instruments of the orchestra including the violin, the oboe, the cello and the recorder. The workshops and demos from Farlington’s own instrumental teaching staff and local professional musicians will help them to make informed judgements about what instruments they would like to learn at the start of the new academic year.
The second part of the day was a Master Class for a mass band, comprising members of the Training Orchestra, String Orchestra and Concert Orchestra at Farlington School. They spent the day rehearsing with Anne Stearns, Director of Music, and Paula Streeter. Most of the players met each other, and the music, for the first time at 9 o’clock that morning. They were placed under a tremendous amount of pressure and had to work extremely hard as they had to perform that evening.
The evening concert held in Farlington’s New Courtyard Hall was a great success. The first section allowed the audience to hear the glorious sound that the mass band and various orchestras made; the middle part highlighted the different sections that can be found in the orchestra, through performances from the Wind Quintet, String Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble and a solo from Matt Ellis on solo trumpet. The final part of the Concert was a celebration with flag-waving, singing and having fun. The audience stood to sing the National Anthem, bobbed to ‘The Sailor’s Hornpipe’ and waved flags madly for Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and the traditional ‘Britannia Rules the Waves’ in true ‘Last Night of the Proms’ style.
This was the final concert for Anne Stearns and the evening was a fitting, flag-waving Farlington finale for Anne who certainly did ‘go out’ with the crash, bang and wallop she had wanted, and a standing ovation for all that she has done for the musical life of the school. She will be greatly missed.