PUBLISHED 03 July 2020
Premiered on Facebook, 2nd July, 2020
Last night our AKS community was treated to our first Virtual Summer Concert when it premiered on Facebook with an audience of 140 watching live, with many more watching later, or catching up on You Tube.
Mr Waterhouse introduced the evening, praising the students, “I have been so impressed with how our students at AKS Lytham have risen to the challenge of remote learning in music and produced some truly outstanding work.” He went on to thank Mr Brown for organising the concert and to dedicating it to the Year 13 students who have been a core part of the performing arts family at AKS over their time at the school.
Despite not being together, the community came alive with over 340 comments between parents, students and staff as the audience gave their appreciation to our musicians. It was particularly heart-warming to see the students supporting each other, complimenting, and cheering each other on.
The evening commenced with Dulcie’s beautiful piano solo, ‘Rosemary’s Waltz setting the standard for the evening; before moving on to performances from our Virtual Choir, including the showstopping ‘Million Dreams’ from the Greatest Showman. We then heard a skilful classical guitar solo from Dev, Keira’s haunting rendition of ‘Dancing on my Own’, before Year 8 band, 8:Fifteen changed tempo with Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’ and Zara treated us to a beautiful piano solo, ’So Long’.
Mr Brown explained the wide variety of musical projects the students have undertaken during lockdown before introducing the Concert Band who performed Adele’s classic ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Sisters, Jessica and Miranda followed with a highly entertaining performance of ‘Anything You Can Do (I can do better)’ which brought a touch of musical theatre to the evening. Alicia and Zara played stunning renditions of ‘Mad World’ and ‘Nuvolo Bianche’ before handing over to the Virtual Chamber Choir who performed the exquisite ‘The Rose’. Two performances followed by our Prep School Choir, the first was ‘Only One’ by Jessica Slowen and the second piece was written by Mr Thomas, named quite aptly, ‘AKS is the Best’ – it was great to see a love of music and performing being nurtured amongst our youngest students and we look forward to seeing them all develop.
The latter part of the concert featured the ‘Louis Green Collective’, which included Mr Hodder (on bass) and Mr Harrison (on drums), Louis noted in the comments how he “loved doing that”. Then Sally sang ‘Meant to Be’ and Ben played ‘The River Flows In You’ on piano before we had two duets, the first by Dev and Alicia on piano and the second from Hugo (piano) and Carly who sang an outstanding rendition of ‘Tomorrow’. We then heard from Mr Hodder, who spoke about how many of the students had learnt the music for the event entirely in lockdown and thanked our peripatetic teachers for continuing such a high standard of remote provision during lockdown.
The concert finished with a rendition of ‘Tequila’ by the Swing Band that brought both energy and style to the performance. A lovely piece, ‘Elegie’ played on the piano by Anya followed, concluding with Muskaan’s velvet tones when she sang ‘Maybe this Time’ from Cabaret. Headmaster, Mr Harrow introduced the finale, ‘AKS Sings’, a “community project set up to reduce the feeling of distance between pupils, family, friends, staff and alumni” and how the song, ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ was chosen to show our continued gratitude and support for all keyworkers. The community choir was made up of over forty members and made a magical end to a wonderful evening.
We would like to thank the Performing Arts department for a sensational concert, our students for their performances and our audience for their supportive comments, including, “I could listen to this all night”, “What truly outstanding performances by such talented students” and “Thank-you for a wonderful virtual evening of music. I loved it “. This concert ended the term on a high and whilst we couldn’t be together, we were united in spirit.
If you were not able to watch the premiere on Facebook, you can still watch it from our page, or alternatively via You Tube here.