Chamber Choir

Grosvenor’s Chamber Choir, consisting of pupils from middle and senior school has been very busy during this academic year. The choir performed ‘Be Still My Soul’ by Jonathan Rea at the school’s annual prize giving ceremony, carrying the piece to their audition for BBC’s School Choir of the Year.

For the Carol Service in December, the Chamber Choir prepared and performed ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ as well as ‘A Christmas Blessing.’ Following their audition for ‘School Choir of the Year,’ they competed in the final heat of the competition at Bangor Academy, with ‘Be Still My Soul’ by Jonathan Rea and ‘I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til the Spirit Moves in My Heart’ by Moses Hogan earning themselves a place in the semi-final where they performed ‘Lightning’ by Greg Gilpin and ‘The Lord Bless You and Keep You.’ Unfortunately, on this occasion Grosvenor Grammar School’s Chamber Coir did not gain one of the three places in the final, but with dignity and pride the repertoire of pieces from the competition was performed at the Spring Concert on Wednesday, 27th March 2019 to much delight of all in attendance.

On Thursday, 22nd November Grosvenor’s Chamber Choir was invited, by both Connswater Community Greenway Events Manager Shona Campbell and ‘Trust’ Manager Michele Bryans, to perform at C.S. Lewis Square for the local Christmas Fayre, before the much-anticipated switching on of its festive Christmas lights.

The event marked C.S. Lewis Square being officially open for two years, as well as the 55th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’ death. The Choir performed a selection of pieces which they are due to perform at the upcoming annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St. Anne’s Cathedral, such as ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and ‘The Angel Gabriel’, receiving praise from the public for coming out on such a cold, windy night.

The Music Department was very grateful to the ‘Connswater Community Greenway Events and ‘Trust’ for affording the Chamber Choir the opportunity to perform at this prestigious event.

On Friday 23rd November 2018 the Music department welcomed William Thompson, from EMS Audio, to the school as the Chamber Choir recorded its entry for the prestigious ‘BBC Radio Ulster School Choir of the Year’ 2019 as well as ‘BBC Songs of Praise Young Choir of the Year UK’.

The Choir’s performance pieces were ‘Be Still My Soul’, composed by Jean Sibelius and specially arranged by Jonathan Rea for the GGS Chamber Choir, followed by ‘I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til The Spirit Moves in My Heart’, composed by Moses Hogan.

As always the professionalism of Mr W. Thompson, himself a former choral scholar of King’s College Cambridge, in recording the CD was much appreciated. The Chamber Choir was conducted throughout by Miss Foster with piano accompaniment from Mr J. Arnold.

On Friday, 25th January 2019, Grosvenor’s esteemed Chamber Choir was fortunate enough to welcome Mr A Nunn, the new Artistic Director of the Ulster Youth Choir, to the school where he delivered an inspirational and most worthwhile workshop to those in attendance.

Mr Nunn visited GGS last year to conduct a workshop which also acted as the audition for his appointment as the UYC Artistic Director; he was obviously very appreciative to Grosvenor for its role in this process and, as a follow-up, delivered an exceptional workshop based around ‘I’m Gonna Sing ‘Till the Spirit Moses in my Heart’, one of the pieces that the Chamber Choir is due to perform in the Heats of the prestigious ‘BBC N.I. School Choir of the Year Competition’ 2019.

Mr Nunn’s attention to detail proved incredibly helpful and many members of the Chamber Choir stayed on, following the workshop, to complete an audition for the Ulster Youth Choir itself; we await the outcome with anticipation.

Mr Nunn’s credentials are evident to all; he is currently Director of Choirs at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Junior Conservatoire in Glasgow, where he is responsible for the choral programme of 300 students aged 8-18. In addition, he is a regular conductor with the National Youth Choir of Scotland and, most recently, conducted NYCoS in Belgium, in performances broadcast live on BBC1 and BBC2, to mark the centenary of the 1917 Battle of Passchendale. Given such widespread experience, it is of little surprise that Mr Nunn’s session met with such a positive response.

Congratulations to a number of Grosvenor’s talented choristers who have recently been selected onto the Ulster Youth Choir and Ulster Youth Training Choir respectively.

Participating as members of the 2019 Ulster Youth Choir are: Chloe Hunter-Rea 14 TG3, Beth Vance 13 TG6, Anna Cousins 13 TG3, Anna Smith 13 TG3, Adam Blair 14 TG5, Tyler Smith 13 TG5 and Daniel Stewart 13 TG5, while, in addition, Stephanie Wallace 13 TG2, Sarah Whittle 13 TG3, Ruth Sellar 13 TG5 and Emily Woods14 TG2 have been chosen as members of the Ulster Youth Training Choir.

The above selections were made following auditions held recently in Grosvenor by Andrew Nunn, the UYC’s Artistic Director.

Each year both the Ulster Youth Choir (open to young people aged 18 – 24) and the Training Choir (open to 15 – 18 year olds) run residential courses which prove invaluable in providing first-class training for all in attendance; this year’s courses are set to take place from 14th – 20th, and the 21st – 27th July respectively, while a twentieth anniversary tour to France is also penciled in, along with a Concert in the Ulster Hall on 27th July.