Choir at Pittville Pump Rooms

Wow! Pittville Pump Rooms certainly had a musical evening.  The Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra (CSO) were finely tuned and sixty members of our Junior Choir sang their hearts out to a full audience.  It was so exciting to be singing in such a beautiful building – we especially enjoyed looking up to the square-balcony and hearing our sound ascend to amazing heights.

This was a special event and we are very proud to have been invited by the CSO to join them. Our main piece was “Pavane” by Fauré where we sang in part and unison, accompanied by the CSO.  It was very tricky to learn and sometimes we had to watch the conductor and sometimes Miss Hartley and we had to remember where we were in the six minute long piece.   To welcome in the Christmas season,  we also sang “Il Est Né” unaccompanied, all in French and in three parts – we saw a few weepy eyes during that one!  We finished with a lively and swaying rendition of “Down By The River-side”.  Traditionally this is an American Spiritual but our thanks go to Andrew Chapman of the CSO who re-arranged it for us in the style of “Dixieland-Jazz”.

Feed back from a member of the CSO;

“It is not often that I am nearly moved to tears when performing with the orchestra but last night I was. It was that section near to the end of the Pavane when your wonderful singers moved from a hum, up an octave to an aah. It was quite magical and beautiful. I have never heard singers of such a tender age produce such ravishing sounds. A tribute to the musical ethos of the school.   I was deeply impressed. Thank you very, very much.”

For the Junior Choir;

Children, you were yet again, a joy to work with and your commitment to the sound you created was awesome.  You really did sound wonderful and I was so proud of you.  Thank you for all your hard work during our rehearsals and please say a big thank you to your parents for supporting us.

Thank you also to Miss Gill, Mrs Rosser and Mrs Brown for giving up their time on Saturday evening to help.  And a huge thank you to Mrs Sanderson for helping us understand the accompaniment to “Pavane” during our rehearsals.  We couldn’t do it without you.

Miss M Hartley