FANTASTIC EVENINGS and MARVELLOUS SHOWCASE CONCERTS
It was most encouraging to have the Whitla Hall at Queen’s University Belfast filled to capacity on two Saturdays in June. The District Co-ordinators stage-managed the Showcase Concerts in exemplary fashion. All groups without exception performed appropriate and pleasing music to extremely high standards, and the progression from junior, through intermediate, to senior groups, was demonstrated clearly. The Director offers the following brief personal reflections, with which readers who were in the audience are invited to agree or disagree:
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| The performers on Saturday 12 June were 340 young musicians, representing 57 different schools and colleges. The Board was also pleased to host guests from the Czech Republic.
The outstanding Senior Concert Band made a huge impact as usual. The choice of challenging show music of popular appeal from West Side Story, Les Miserables, Riverdance and Star Wars certainly made no concessions to youth, and the Band members responded magnificently.
Based on a solid string sound, the Intermediate Orchestra impressed with their performances from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Bizet’s Carmen suites, and Copland’s Hoe Down from the Rodeo ballet.
One reason the standard of the promoted groups is so good is that the standard of the junior groups is rising significantly. Particularly noteworthy items from these quarters included Two Minuets from Little Suite in D from the Bangor Junior Orchestra, Caprice for Flutes from the Lisburn Junior Band, a Caribbean Suite from the Lisburn Junior Orchestra and A Suite for Young Concert Band from the Bangor Junior Band.
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On Saturday 19 June we heard 360 young people, from 64 different schools and colleges.The admirable Senior Orchestra’s four movements from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite included numerous well-played solos. The Orchestra also sounded well in the stirring Triumphal March from Verdi’s opera Aida, and Lawrence Neill’s idiomatic arrangements of the soothing Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and the sparkling Irish Washerwoman.
Earlier the Intermediate Concert Band displayed much discipline, flair and extrovertism in Hootenanny, Introduction and Dance and a Back to the Future medley, whilst the well prepared String Training Orchestra treated us to a 3-movement Concerto Grosso by Handel, a Boccherini minuet, Karl Jenkyns’ popular Palladio and an ideal setting of Ain’t Misbehavin’.
The attractive playing of the Castlereagh and Down Junior Orchestras was characterised by secure intonation and differential dynamics, whilst the performances of the Castlereagh and Down Junior Bands were fully controlled throughout, with ‘with it’ young percussionists inevitably catching the eye.
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