Howard Blake Concert

Posted: 20th January 2020

Burgess Hill Girls attended ‘The Music of Howard Blake’ Concert at The Dolphin Leisure Centre in Haywards Heath on Sunday 8th December 2019. Charlotte Rayner has kindly written a review of the day.

 

First rehearsal – looking through the challenging songs – thinking about some complicated rhythms, and checking out the few awkward intervals that were challenging to pitch.  

 

First time with the orchestra you started to feel that the pieces were beginning to come together as we had only heard them with the piano before this. The work was coming alive, which was really exciting. Our conductor, Mr Jonathan Willcocks helped us to pick-apart the songs so we got all of the details correct and helped to find ways to improve our pitching of the more complex parts.

 

Concert day arrived. I was excited and a little nervous, we were going to sing in a bigger performance space and they would be an audience! I was also looking forward to hearing the Snowman with the boy soloist and professional reader as it is such a well-known and important piece of music for a whole generation. My parents alongside many others were in the audience and they were all looking forward to hearing the songs performed.

 

When Mr Blake came into the hall we were  all so excited to meet him as this was the moment we had all been waiting for and building up to. Whilst we were performing I actually noticed Mr Blake singing along with us!

It was lovely to look out and see the whole audience smiling and enjoying the concert as it went along.

 

After we finished I felt very proud of what we had achieved – the choirs, the way the various schools worked together, singing with a professional orchestra, singing in two-part harmony and performing in front of a world famous composer. Some people in the audience even gave us a standing ovation!

 

We were so thrilled when Mr Blake agreed to have his picture taken with us after the concert.

 

It was a great experience for me and my friends to practice singing with an orchestra and to join forces with other schools and choirs. I am really glad I took part.