Long awaited by both the performers and the audience, our annual De Montfort Hall concert is the principal event of the department’s calendar and this year’s concert certainly lived up to expectations.

With the van’s arrival at the stage door, a busy afternoon of rehearsals for our various ensembles was ahead but they are a crucial part of the De Montfort experience and a chance for us to adjust to this very different acoustic. After the five hours of rehearsals, our performers went backstage to the dressing rooms to get ready and to have a slice of pizza or two!

The concert started with a warm welcome from Mr Alwyn Morris (LGS housemaster) who was to be the compere for the evening whilst the Symphonic Wind Band waited eagerly on the stage to open the concert. Under the baton of Mr Geary, they started with Hess’ “Stephenson’s Rocket,” telling the story of a steam train at the start of the Industrial Revolution with its varying tempos to recreate the journey of the train. This was before Patrick came to the stage to give the first solo item of the evening, Curnow’s “Nexus” for solo trumpet and wind band. He played with great technical ability and showed great command of the piece throughout. SWB’s final piece was Hazo’s “Arabesque” which transported the audience into a Middle Eastern sound-world with its enchanting flute solo to start and mythical themes throughout.

Next, it was time for the Symphony Orchestra to take to the stage, performing Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture” with Mrs Burns at the podium. This was performed with both vigour and grandeur, encapsulating its accompanying story with great skill. To end the first half, I took to the stage to perform Chaminade’s “Concertino for flute and orchestra.” Though it was composed to be so difficult that an ex-lover of Chaminade’s would not be able to play it, I feel that I did the piece proud and it was a real joy to work with conductor Mr Geary, my father.

After the interval, Symphony Orchestra were performing once again but this time together with our massed choirs of both Senior and Junior Chamber Choirs, the Loughborough Singers and all Year 7s from across our three senior schools to perform a specially arranged version of our School Hymn by previous Director of Music, Mr Richard West, to mark its 100^th anniversary. It was conducted by Ms Bouckley and it certainly was a special performance, incorporating brass fanfares, piccolo descants and participation of the audience as well! Symphony Orchestra’s final performance of the evening was the accompaniment of piano soloist, Ayeka, to give a rendition of the second movement of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto. She played with great musical maturity and stunned the audience with her incredibly sensitive playing of a notoriously challenging piece of repertoire.

It was then the turn of the String Ensemble to perform Felipe and Daniel’s solo pieces, Piazzolla’s “Invierno” from Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas” and Vivaldi’s “Winter from the Four Seasons; Largo and Allegro” respectively. Both violinists captured the imagery within their pieces amazingly whilst mastering the technical demands of the pieces. The audience also enjoyed the seamless attacca transition between the two pieces. To end the concert, the audience was treated with two more pieces by Nigel Hess. Firstly, “Arise My Love” was performed by the Senior Chamber Choir and the Hess Ensemble with soloists Florence (soprano) and Isaac (‘cello.) The two soloists worked together in great unity. The meaningful text was conveyed to the audience very well with the thought-provoking melodies of both the voice and the ‘cello whilst the two worked very closely with the ensemble and choir. The concert concluded with Hess’ majestic “The Way of Light”, using the combined choirs, Year 7 and the Hess Ensemble and our own Mr David Morris to narrate the spoken word at the beginning of the piece. It was the perfect way to end what had been an extremely varied evening of music with its imposing melodies and imaginative harmonies.

Having performed in eight of our De Montfort Hall concerts with Mozart’s Requiem being my DMH début back in 2016, this concert has to have been my favourite as there truly was something for everyone and I am delighted that this was my final one. I, personally, would like to thank everyone that made this spectacular evening possible and all of the performers for their dedication to making the concert the success that it turned out to be.

Joseph, Music Prefect