Everything musical that's going on at Hayes School
It’s a busy time… the music techies have their first exam this week, with Year 11 gearing up for the GCSE listening paper the week after half term!
Keep coming to rehearsals as a break from your revision – you can’t revise all the time!
Dates for your diary:
Hayes Fair Saturday 8th June – 1pm – Jazz Band
Summer Concert Thursday 4th July – 6.30pm – EVERYONE
This term sometimes gets a bit difficult, as exam pressures and rehearsals start to collide. However, you need to remember that you simply cannot work all the time, and coming to a rehearsal can be beneficial for your health, happiness, and ultimately your exam success! Plus, more people at rehearsals = a better summer concert!
For more info on this, please click this link.
Rodrigo y Gabriela are a genre-busting Mexican guitar duo. You can find out more about them on their website http://www.rodgab.com/
Great turnout at rehearsals this week – everything is off to a flying start in this term that is such an important time for our Y11s and Y13s. The coursework is in and we are ready to take on anything!
So here’s a summary of what we’ve got on this term:
See you at rehearsals!
Thanks so much to Laura and Hannah for doing the video this year!
…and here is Mr Foster’s drawing to commemorate another brilliant tour!
Talking of tour, our tour manager from last year, Georg, says ‘Salut!’ and happy Easter from the Musikpavillon in Leipzig where we performed last year:
We really hope to have Georg as our tour manager again next year for Amsterdam 2020!
We will be unpacking all the tour stuff on Wednesday 24th April at lunchtime. All tour-goers are welcome to come and help.
Let’s get all the music leaders together Thursday 25th at lunch to make some plans for the summer term and do a big sort-out of concert band music (it’s likely this will take up Friday lunchtime too).
Rehearsals will start up again on Monday 29th April.
The coffin is packed.
We are ready!
Well done on a brilliant Easter Concert!
Apart from all the fantastic music, it was amazing (and very much appreciated) to see so many students take responsibility for sorting out all kinds of backstage things: running the door, setting up, clearing away and so on. You rock.
After the holidays, we will be unpacking all the tour stuff on Wednesday 24th April at lunchtime.
Let’s get all the music leaders together Thursday 25th at lunch to make some plans for the summer term.
Rehearsals will start up again on Monday 29th April.
Here is the rehearsal schedule for Thursday 4th April. All of these rehearsals will be in the Hall.
The concert starts at 6.30pm (also in the Hall). Here’s some essential info for you:
There will be no rehearsals on Friday, but tour-goers will need to help with packing the coffin. If we are canny, we can start getting things together on Thursday (and get the coffin down from upstairs).
If you would like to join in with the fun and excitement about preparing for tour, please come to CGD on Friday – we’ll start getting organised at break, and finish packing at lunchtime.
Remember the parents’ evening for tour is on Monday at 6pm in the Hall. Please bring your passport + EHIC card, together with your €25 damage deposit in an envelope (a letter went out about this via Parentmail earlier in the week). We will talk through the itinerary, and you will get your lovely Kermit-green tour t-shirts!
In preparation for the top D at the end of Raise Your Voice, here is some truly spectacular singing! Yma Sumac was famous for her use of the whistle register. The high note she hits in this is F6 (so you can quit complaining about that top D!) – listen right to the end for the big finish!
We heard this week that we have been awarded Artsmark Platinum by Arts Council England. This is the culmination of a process which has taken more than two years. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the arts at Hayes, and has made it the great asset to the school that it is. Platinum is the top Artsmark award. We are very proud of our achievement!
The rehearsal schedule for the day of the concert will be in next week’s blog. We really need everyone at all rehearsals this week!
Remember, the parents’ meeting for tour is on Monday 1st April at 6pm in the Hall. You will need to bring your passport and EHIC card to the meeting. One other thing we need to collect (and a letter will go out to parents early next week about this too) is €25 from each person which is the damage deposit required by our hotel. This is a deposit, so you’ll get it back (unless something in your room gets damaged!). We have often had to provide a cash deposit in the past, but never one this big, which is why we are asking you to give us the per-person amount to hand in when we arrive. We’re really sorry about this, but it’s one of those things we just have to deal with.
You can watch the full episode on iPlayer here.
Here is a reminder of the great times we had with Yale Glee Club this week. We worked with them on a performance of the Sing Up Day song, One Moment, One People by Beccy Owen, and also did some warmups and work on focus and projection. They performed a range of songs for our choir and the whole of Year 7, ranging from some beautiful Stanford motets to some traditional spirituals and Yale songs.
Also, a huge well done to the cast and band for Little Shop. The band have come in in the last 2 weeks and have done such a professional job in playing a demanding score to a fabulous standard.
We now have less than 3 weeks until the Easter concert…. and TOUR!!
We look forward to welcoming our American visitors on Wednesday. Here’s what’s happening:
Have you got your tickets yet for the main school show? Don’t miss this brilliant production! We have an amazing team of actors, singers, and instrumentalists who have been working their socks off to bring you a fabulous show!
Tour parents’ evening is confirmed for Monday 1st April at 6pm in the Hall – a letter has gone out via Parentmail. This time next month we’ll be there!!
Remember this is coming up on Thursday 4th April – make sure you’re at all rehearsals between now and then, so we can make it a fabulous one!
We are very excited to be welcoming Yale Glee Club on 13th March! Remember that we need your photography consent slips back (either on paper or via parent email). If you go to the Choirs page, you will be able to learn the song we will be doing together, One Moment, One People.
First of all, congratulations to Harry, whose design will be adorning our tour t-shirts this year (which will be Kermit green). Although a shout out must go to Hannah and Ben Martin, whose design was almost identical to Harry’s (great minds think alike).
Secondly, we will be having a tour meeting for tourgoers and their parents in the last week of term. The provisional date for this is Monday 1st April at 6pm, but this will be confirmed and an email sent out. At the meeting we will go through our itinerary, talk logistics, and collect in your passports.
Guitarists, singers, or just interested people are required on Thursday lunchtimes to be in our skiffle band! Talk to Matthew Layson if you want to know more, or just turn up to CGF on Thursday lunch.
Hayes Music blog 