Senior Choir are victorious at Arts Festival

Senior Choir are delighted to have won their hotly contested class at the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts.

The 32-strong choir, comprising pupils in Years 5 and 6, have been rehearsing for weeks to prepare for this exciting day. With a set piece, The Bare Necessities (arr: Greg Gilpin), sung by all schools, our choir’s contrasting own choice of music was I Am The Wind by Lin Marsh. We were able to hear five other schools perform during the morning and it was a brilliant opportunity to see how other perform and present themselves, hear their choir’s repertoire, and see how they engage with the audience. We particularly enjoyed some of the action songs and watching other conductors!

King’s Hawford were the second choir to perform in our category and the pupils took to the huge stage in the grand ballroom of Cheltenham Town Hall with a calm disposition showing their readiness for the competition. Introduced confidently by our Heads of School, Erin and Barnaby, we performed the set song first. Accompanied on the piano perfectly by ex-Hawfordian Hayden Phillips, the children gave an excellent and lively rendition of the Disney classic The Bare Necessities, demonstrating carefully balanced harmonies and great attention to rhythmic detail, all with big smiles on their faces. The second piece really showed the choir’s skill and control of harmony and dynamics with the adjudicator commenting, “Tremendous! I really can’t find anything to say!” Needless to say, we were absolutely thrilled with the result, never assuming it would be us winning as there were some great performances from other schools. We are proud to have been awarded a rare ‘Honours’, with 93/100 marks, along with a trophy we can retain until next year!

On the journey back to school the pupils commented on their great experience: Ava H felt happy and lucky to get the opportunity to perform in a festival. Cameron HT would definitely like to do it again because he found it exciting, and it was really cool to see the other children sing. Ollie B was glad to see and hear the other schools perform and Holly J found everyone very supportive in the audience. Isla said her mum “went a bit crazy when we won, but it was great to have some parents watching!” Erin “enjoyed every moment: the singing was amazing, and it was a very tough competition.” Max M “felt quite anxious when walking on to the stage (with 400+ people watching) but felt joyous when actually performing.” Michelle Z’s favourite moment was “when we were on the stage, under the lights, that feeling of being proud and feeling special because this is our moment.” Finally, Georgia P commented, “I definitely recommend it: join Senior Choir!”

The children certainly made the staff proud, with their wonderful applause and support for each school, their own performances and with their gracious response to the announcement of winning the choir class. Well done to everyone: you showed real Hawford spirit and were great ambassadors for the School.