Echoes 3" The Royal Albert Hall
London
Wednesday 18th March 2009
I
woke up early on Wednesday morning very excited! Today was the day I was
going to be singing at the Royal Albert Hall. I got ready for school and
had to speed dad up (Who was being annoyingly slow!). When I got to
school, everyone was excited and talking about what we were going to be
doing that day.
The coach arrived at 10am, we all gathered together in the reception and
our music teachers Mrs Horlock and Mrs. Hambly, then Mrs. Price out
Deputy Head teacher and Mrs. Crook a year 3 teacher counted us to make
sure that all 27 of us were there, we didn’t want to leave anyone
behind. We then got onto the coach and started our journey up to the
capital.
We were all chattering away and looking out of the window to spot the
signs that we had made it into London! I was sitting next to Jamie,
quite near to the front, it took us about an hour and a half to get
there and when we did London was full of traffic, it was taking ages
just to move about a short way. Eventually we could see the signposts to
the Royal Albert Hall, there were lots of other coaches heading that way
too. It wasn’t just Stoke Mandeville Combined School that was taking
part; there were 57 other schools involved, and a band from the
Aylesbury music centre as well as other orchestral groups. We stopped
outside the hall and Mrs Horlock told us to stay together and try not to
get lost! We had our photograph taken on the steps of the Royal Albert
Hall. Our teachers then told us that we were going to eat our packed
lunches on the hall steps, It was lovely and sunny (although slightly
cold), and we ate our lunch admiring the splendour.
After we had finished our lunch we went inside the Hall ready for our
rehearsal. When we got inside we were shown to a large room at the back
of the hall and told it was our dressing room, we shared it with five
other schools, but there was plenty of room. I met some of my friends
who go to other schools which was fun.
We were told that we needed to go into the hall and listen to a talk
from the composer of the piece of music. We got into the hall and I
couldn’t believe how big it looked when you enter from the stage. It was
beautiful, the detail on the ceiling and the massive organ behind us,
the circle of seats for the audience to sit it. It was like one of the
old Greek theatres which were based around a circle. It was much more
impressive than I was expecting, and when the composer of the piece we
were singing started talking it was amazing how loud her voice sounded.
Her name was Helen Mitchell; she was born in Wendover and attended
Aylesbury High School (Where I am going in September). She had composed
a piece of music called “Song spiral”, which consisted of different
types of world music. There was African, Japanese and Indian music
incorporated into the piece. She told us all about the piece and
explained that in between there would be some drumming and chanting.
We ran through the concert from start to finish and changed things to
make it better. We were given torches to flash into the audience at
certain points during the performance and also twizzle sticks to wave
around as part of our act. We then went back to our dressing room so
that we could collect our tea and we went into Kensington Park to eat
it.
At this point I knew that my dad and my big sister Laura were on their
way into London on the coach with the parents from the school, I was
excited about this as I hadn’t seen Laura in a while. As performance
time neared we all started to get a little nervous, but our teachers
assured us that we were going to be ok. At around 6:45pm we were told
that we needed to go and take our seats at the top of the tiers with the
other schools, as our performance was to take place during the second
half of the show. I was looking everywhere for Dad and Laura, but
couldn’t see them. It turns out they were sitting in the grand tier (two
floors down) directly below me! They told me afterwards that they had
spent ages looking through the binoculars trying to find me and were
disappointed that they couldn’t see me anywhere!
The first part of the performance was very good. We were welcomed to the
Royal Albert Hall by Sue Imbriano (Director of children’s services for
Buckinghamshire County Council) and Marion Clayton (Cabinet member for
Achievement and Learning). We then sang the national anthem accompanied
by the amazing organ which echoed around the theatre. The children
taking part in the first half of the concert then sang Psalm 23 – The
Lord is my Shepherd. (One of my favourites). The concert was then
introduced by Petroc Trelawny a famous radio presenter from BBC Radio 3.
Who talked about the evening and what wonders the audience had in store.
Then the first ensemble began. The piece was called “The Sea” composed
by Jane Smith. It was songs about life on the sea and the animals that
lived in it. There were children dressed up in costumes and lots of fish
‘swimming’ around the stage.
At the interval we had to move ourselves from the top tier of the
seating area down to our places on the stage. We had 20 minutes to do
this, but at the same time the children who had just been on stage
performing were on their way up to where we had just been sitting! Also
to add to the chaos the audience were moving around the theatre as well,
making their way to the bar to get an interval drink and pop to the
toilet! We made it with about 2 minutes to spare; I was worried at one
point that we were going to be late as we had to wait for the last of
the schools to vacate the stage. At which point Dad and Laura were able
to spot me, I however couldn’t see them despite trying, the auditorium
was very dark and I could see shapes but couldn’t recognise people. I
waved a couple of times at people I thought were waving at me, but
wasn’t sure if it was them, they waved back enthusiastically though!
The second half started with some percussion music from the
Buckinghamshire County Youth Orchestra and some songs from Aylesbury
Music Centre Big Band. They did a song from the Blues Brothers called
"Minnie the Moocher" and introduced the lead singer as a “Mr George
Turnip”. He sang part of the song and we sang it back to him, he got the
audience to stand up and join in as well. It was good fun and made
everyone laugh.
Then came our big moment: the lights dimmed and the soft music started.
We sang Scarborough fair and all through the night. We got to use our
torches that we had been given, and for some of the songs we waved our
twizzle sticks and even got to use them as oars as part of one of the
songs. My nerves disappeared as we started to sing and I really enjoyed
myself. I had forgotten that I was tired and that it had been a very
long day. Towards the end of the performance lots of children came out
of the back of the auditorium with African drums and dressed up in
really bright clothes and our big finale was loud and exciting. The
audience stood up and was clapping in time to the music, and we were all
dancing on the stage. At the end of the performance balloons came down
from the high ceiling and we all got a big round of applause from
everyone and it was a real high to end on.
We then had to go back to our dressing room and pick up our things and
head back to our coach. We couldn't believe it was nearly 11pm, and we
had school the next day! We got on to the coach, feeling rather sleepy
and worn out. The journey home was much quieter than when we arrived,
some of the children had fallen asleep! We got back to our school at
midnight where Dad and Laura were there to greet me. They said they had
really enjoyed the concert and that they very proud of me. We then
walked home which was about one mile from the school and we went
straight to bed, as we were all very tired, but what a wonderful day it
had been, one I shall never forget
What Katy did
Classic FM Live Woburn Abbey
Proms in the Park Milton
Keynes
Photographs by
my dad
Click
photographs to enlarge
