A capacity audience
at Beeston's Round Hill Primary School celebrated Christmas Cheer in style
last Saturday at a family concert staged by Nottingham
Concert Band (Robert Parker) with the Round Hill School Choir.
The 60-strong band
played a variety of seasonal pieces including James Curnow’s Cavalcade of
Christmas, Leroy Anderson's A Christmas Festival, Philip Sparke’s setting of the traditional Ukrainian Bell Carol and Bill Holcombe’s upbeat
Christmas Jazz Suite. The choir’s spontaneous involvement in Naohiro Iwai’s
new swingtime version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer clearly delighted the
audience, as did their mastery of the vocal line when they joined the band in
Three Noels by Clare Grundman.
Audience
participation was encouraged by presenter Ashley Parnell. He reflected the party
spirit of the occasion through a series of swift costume changes, donning his
dressing-gown and slippers to introduce the band’s sensitive interpretation of
Howard Blake’s Walking in the Air and wrapping up in anorak and "wellies"
for Prokofiev"s Midnight Sleigh-ride, an arrangement by Tom Wallace which
featured the band"s percussion section.
All proceeds from
the Christmas Cheer concert will be donated to The Arches, a local charity which
supports homeless and needy families in Nottingham.
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