Annual Cabaret Concert Delights Audience

Another year…another Cabaret evening! Once again, our Sixth Form singers, bands and small Senior ensembles thoroughly entertained on Monday evening in Perrins Hall with a feast of jazz and popular music. From classic jazz and show tunes to more modern songs, the full audience were treated to performances by sixteen solo singers, each bringing a special stage presence and interpretation to the Concert.

Lower Sixth students Amelie Lockley and Winnie Lock performed their songs accompanied only by a piano, providing two pockets of reflection in the high-energy Concert. Kez Colthurst and Kiera Mountford added drums to the piano backing in their upbeat rendition of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ to take the audience back to the swinging sixties. Kieran Lilley’s crooning ‘Earth Angel’ took us back another decade, whilst

Elizabeth Crookall and Abi Walter’s duet of ‘Night and Day’ resurrected the golden age of the 1930s, as did Bethany Atherton’s ‘Summertime’ (in a more contemporary arrangement). Upper Sixth student Daniel Foster sang ‘Heard It Through the Grapevine’ with Senior Jazz, followed by Edith Wise’s ‘Fly Me To The Moon’. 1970s classics ‘You Are The Sunshine of my Life’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ were performed by Kitty Hildred and Sasha Penlington respectively, with more recent hits ‘Don’t Know Why’ and Raye’s ‘Oscar Winning Tears’ sung by Sophie Jackson and Isabelle Jones. The final two solo songs were show tunes: ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’, sung by Isobel Hadley, and ‘Maybe This Time’, which closed the Concert performed with great passion by Abbie Crabbe.

As well as the songs with the bands, the evening featured a performance from the Upper Voices Vocal Ensemble, who sang ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’, and the ‘Dashing Musical Chaps’, reprising their Worcester Competitive Arts Festival-award-winning rendition of ‘Hallelujah’ then combining with Sixth Form Jazz Combo ‘Noodle Soup’ in a fantastic medley of Jersey Boys hits, put together entirely by the students themselves. Two very contemporary jazz tunes completed the programme: ‘Spiral’ by Cut Capers and ‘Grid Generation’ by Cory Wong, both of which showed our Sixth Form students’ advanced jazz tastes and talent in a truly impressive manner.

Sixth Form student Winnie Lock performed in her first Cabaret Concert this year and said: “The Concert was amazing because of all the talent we got to see and hear. I sang ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and, although I was a bit nervous, when I got on the stage I really enjoyed singing. It was a great evening”.

We thank and congratulate all who performed in a great Concert to round off a busy musical term at RGS!