Joseph Cooper Concert 2022

A thrilling evening in Chapel saw a large audience enjoy performances of a wide variety of music accompanying film clips on a big screen. We opened with Holsts’ Mars from The Planets, conducted by Benson (year 13), who not only produced a most exciting rendition, but directed entirely from memory!

We had a number of very high quality smaller groups, including the Flute Ensemble with the theme from 1959 film A Summer Place arranged by Sax teacher Mr Miles, Pirates of the Caribbean from the Brass Ensemble and an arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah from the Guitar Ensemble. The Oboe quartet of Ella, Sophie, Justin and Yan dazzled with a performance of an Allegro from Johann Baptist Vanhal quartet, and Naomi impressed us all with a JS Bach keyboard concerto movement accompanied by the String Ensemble.

On the lighter side we had a superb rendition of ‘When Somebody Loved Me’ from Toy Story 2 by close harmony group The Cliftones; the Cello Ensemble gave us an accomplished and entertaining version of the Ghostbusters theme and the Sax Ensemble gave us Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

We ended with a sensational medley from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, played by the Concert Band – a fitting end to a superb evening. Well done to all involved!