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70's & 80's night

After just one month at the school, the newly formed Year 7 bands performed alongside some of the other great talent at Chiswick School, from across a variety of year groups. The theme was 70’s and 80’s, so naturally the colourful clothes, thick moustaches and big hair were all on show. The classics of the era from Brown Eyed Girl and Kids in America to The Q’s original songs were each performed with musical prowess. The audience, quite rightly, cheered for more!

Recital Evenings

We had two really polished recital evenings this term. On 2nd November, three of our sixth formers had the chance to give extended recitals of pieces that they were working on. Josephine sang a beautiful mix of a late romantic English song and a Mozart aria, Youssef then followed with a Hispanic-inspired programme on the guitar, and Zach finished with songs by Butterworth, Strauss, and Howells.

A few weeks later, it was the turn of KS3 to do their own recital evening. Originally only 12 were allowed to perform, but as there were so many sign ups, we extended to 20 performers over two mini-concerts. Stay tuned for the next junior recital evening, we’d love even more performers!

Pub Performances

On 29 November, Blue Monday kicked off the night at The City Barge with their excellent renditions of songs they have been working incredibly hard on. The pub was packed full of proud parents and supporters. In the middle of their show, Cronos (Year 7) performed as a band for the first time outside school. They rocked the room with their two covers, punching above their weight. Then it was back to Blue Monday who closed off the night with yet more classics, plus some original music! What a fantastic night. Shout out to Victoria for premiering one of her own original songs - Blue Hour.

Two days later, The Q went back to their home turf of the Queen’s Head for another barnstorming show. Increasingly, The Q are also filing their shows with home written songs, and this one was no different. Special mention to Zack who has written a song in the incredibly rare key of G# minor.

Services at St Nicholas Church

This term we were delighted to have two services at St Nicholas Church, who we are increasingly building a partnership with. On 15 November, the Girl’s Choir did their first solo evensong, learning quite a substantial amount of choral music for the traditional service. We don’t think many Year 7s would have expected to come to Chiswick and sing Victorian Anglican psalm chants, but we are very ambitious and proud.

Later on in December, the Girl’s choir teamed up with Chiswick Voices and Cavendish school choir for our first ever Carols by Candlelight - a service of readings and music that blended traditional Christmas carols with readings from languages around the world, including a Spanish reading by Roseanna and a Farsi reading by Paniza. Chiswick Voices worked very hard for this performance, and so were bitterly disappointed when the show was stolen from them by Cavendish school choir as they sang their encore of ‘I’m Just Ken’. You win some, you lose some.

Steel Pans and Community Performances

This section of the article is being written the day after the Steel Band Christmas show and goodness me what a show it was. Nine songs learnt in one term, up from two this time last year. The show kicked off with No Refund doing an eclectic and highly entertaining set of songs by Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Elton John, before the two steel bands took centre stage to entertain us with well-known classics and great chat in between songs. This was the culmination of a number of community performances for the groups, on 3rd Dec, the pans went and performed at the Duck Pond market at Chiswick House, the following weekend, the Year 7 band did a full set at Grove Park’s Winter fair. This was a tricky weekend, because Strand on the Green also asked Chiswick for musicians for their Christmas fair at the same time. Given that Mr. Dubois and Mr. Moxon couldn’t attend both gigs, Amelia A in Year 8 stepped up and went to Strand herself to do her own solo set, a very impressive feat indeed.

Upcoming shows

There are more to come, but here are some dates for your diary

• Thursday 21 Dec, 7pm - Open Mic night at the Queen’s Head
• Wednesday 24 Jan, 6:30 - New songwriter’s Open Mic night at the City Barge
• Tuesday 30 Jan, 6:30 - Orchestral Concert, Main Hall
• Wednesday 28 February - Dark Riders at the City Barge
• Saturday 16 March, 6pm - Faure Requiem with Chiswick Voices and Chiswick Community Choir, St Mary’s Osterley
• Tuesday 26 March 6:30pm - Jazz and Blues Night, Main Hall
• Wednesday 27 March - No Refund at the City Barge

Missed a show?

As disappointed as we are that you missed one of our performances, you can now catch up with many of our shows on our YouTube channel.