On Friday 11th March nearly 40 students from Years 5 -11 took part in the ISA A Capella competition. We travelled by coach to Leighton Park School were we joined choirs from at least 20 other schools, including 6th forms.
Our Junior Choir, lead by Lucy Y11 and Imogen Y10, had the nerve-wracking job of opening the whole competition with a rousing performance of “Wavin’ Flag”. The pupils injected real enthusiasm and joy in their performance, all singing so well, with solos by Palesa and Sophia and great percussion provided by Orson, Troy, Bella and Felix. The Junior Choir and their senior leaders had worked on a great arrangement of the song, splitting into lots of different groups, all taking lead parts along the way.
We were then treated to some great performances from other schools until it was the turn of our Senior Choir. The Senior Choir sang “Brighter Than The Sun”, with lots of students (Lucy, Numa, Dylan, Matias, Imogen W, Imogen B, Yazmina and Sarim) taking solos, and fantastic percussion provided by Malachi. It was a brilliant performance with all students taking a turn at the tune or backing vocals through the piece, showing a good, interesting and varied arrangement.
After a break and some more school entries it was finally the turn of the Senior Ensemble. Only 9 pupils are allowed in the ensemble category and they have to show a more complex arrangement and harmonies and the Normanhurst Ensemble did not disappoint, with lead vocals by Gabi and every member of the group taking a solo in the beautiful song “Give Your Heart a Break”.
Once the Senior Ensemble had performed it was time for lunch whilst the judges deliberated. The judges were the famous a capella group, “The Sons of Pitches”, who won Gareth Malone’s televised search for the best British a capella group. Once lunch was over they treated all the students to a short concert, including a song they improvised on the spot on the subject of “fishing” suggested to them by our own Felix! This was a highlight of the day with all our students impressed and inspired by their amazing arrangements and stage presence. The prizes were announced and all though we didn’t win, we were extremely proud of our performances and there was a lot of singing on the coach ride home, which, in traditional school trip fashion was stuck in traffic for 2 hours!
Our a capella choirs are student lead, with students making the decisions on repertoire, arrangements and movements. Lucy and Imogen took on the lead roles this year, with lots of help and suggestions from the other students and we were one of the few schools that entered the maximum three categories and that was completely student lead. All are welcome to join our school choirs and our Y9s and 10s are already planning the performances for next year, watch this space.
Mrs Theresa Jones
Head of Music
