Crowthorne Schools Music Festival. Tuesday 6th July. (2010 archive)

Report by Jean McNab

We were again privileged that the Chaplain gave his permission for this event to be held in the Chapel of Wellington College. The chapel is such a beautiful building and the acoustics are so good that this helps to make the Festival such a special evening.

This year all 5 Crowthorne junior schools-- Crowthorne C.E., Hatch Ride, Oaklands, St. Sebastian’s and Wildmoor Heath, took part. By long tradition Waverley School also took part. Waverley School is actually in Finchampstead but moved there from Ravenswood Avenue, Crowthorne and have taken part in the festival since it first started. 3 musicians from Edgbarrow School accompanied the children on keyboard, drums and bass guitar.

All the schools are very keen to participate, as it is one opportunity for them to perform together. The schools in Crowthorne are rather unusual in being divided between Wokingham LEA and Bracknell Forest LEA and so they do not often have the chance to meet up and work together.

The Carnival Theme of Rhythm of Life had fired the teachers with enthusiasm and their chosen programme was very ambitious. They included as many different rhythms as they could – Samba, Calypso, S American, African, Waltz, Tango, Salsa, Jazz.
The Festival lasted for just over 1 hour. Each school performed one or two individual pieces and these were interspersed with pieces performed by all the children in the Combined Schools Choir.

The programme began with all the children singing Circle of Life and ended with their version of Rhythm of Life.
The two most difficult pieces to perform were The Samba and The Human Drum Kit. The former was done as a round where all 200 children were playing musical instruments – each school with a different one. The children were very disciplined and well coordinated and the result was fantastic. The latter was again in round, but this time the sounds were produced by clapping, stamping feet, slapping thighs etc. This was an interesting and entertaining piece and it was obvious from the applause that it was much appreciated by the audience.

The whole evening was a wonderful event and the children were a credit to Crowthorne. We must thank all the teachers for their hard work in preparing the pupils for the event and the children for entertaining us so beautifully.