New College Pontefract students, Tom Lewis and Charlotte Atkinson, have performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall. They were selected during the summer to perform at the Music for Youth Schools Proms at the Royal Albert Hall which took place in November. This is one of the largest youth music events in Europe, involving approximately 3,000 young musicians across three evening performances.
Charlotte has been a member of the Barnsley Music Hub, an organisation that offers the teaching of musical instruments to students, since the age of seven and plays the Cornet.
Tom travelled down to the event with the East Riding Youth Singers who meet every other Saturday in Beverley. Tom sang bass in “The Messiah” by Handel with the East Riding Youth singers and 1400 other voices from around the UK.
Barnsley Music Hub were provided with an initial rehearsal directed by professional jazz performers Dennis Rollins and Chris Noble. Charlotte said, ”We were introduced to the style of jazz and how it should be approached, before being divided into groups and given the opportunity to pitch our ideas through various forms of improvisation. Our ideas were then eventually combined with ideas from Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham Music Hub students in a composition entitled Jazz Journeys, which consisted of 4 movements and was arranged by Chris Nobel.”
“The concert was a spectacular showcase of the success of young musicians across Britain,” added Charlotte.
The event incorporated various musical ensembles who collectively performed a diverse range of musical styles and genres. The evening was then drawn to a close with the uniting of everyone to perform a piece of music entitled Shine the Light Bright, which was specially composed for the show-stopping grand finale.
“Performing at the Royal Albert Hall was honestly the best experience of my life, something I will always be so grateful for and will never forget!”
Michelle Colvill, head of performing arts at New College, said “Performing music at the Royal Albert Hall is often a once in a lifetime opportunity and this experience will have enthused and motivated these very able performers to reach the highest performance standards possible.”
