Greenside Christmas Concert 2014

Well, it's taken a week for us to recover from the epic 3 1/2 hour long Greenside Christmas Concert. It took a lot of preparation, practice and patience, but it all paid off in the end! 

Our programme was very varied, with pieces dating back to the 1600s to pieces written this year. We had performances from beginner students, to pianists who are Grade 8+; students who performed pieces from our Seasons project, and students who are preparing for exams.

There was also a mixture of non-festive pieces and festive pieces; all of the students who played Christmas pieces were featured in the Piano Studios Unite project. 


 

28 of our students performed, mixed with performances from:

Greenside Ensemble were very delighted to welcome back Rachael from university; it's always lovely performing with her!
We performed two very varied sets:

During the first set, we rocked out with the One Republic song, Counting Stars, which featured a keytar, a three-woman synchronized bell part, sleigh bells to add a Christmas feel, and vocals from Catherine & Georgina. 

We also performed Tori Amos' Winter, arranged by Catherine to include piano, a glock, bell tree, hand bells, flutes, bass guitar, and melodica.

For the second set, Ensemble became a group of troubadours, performing two festive pieces from 1600s on descant recorder, flute, melodicas, bodhran, and sleigh bells. 

Our choir of 24 singers and musicians performed 5 songs:
Music of the Wind
Simple Things
A Winter's Spell
Let It Go
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
And 3 festive sing-alongs that the audience joined in with. 

Glockateers showcased a new-found skill: singing in three-part harmony. 
We sang two folk songs from the film Brave and the festive Winter Wonderland.

We also performed an instrumental version of the Austrian and Sussex carols.

 

Greenside Consort performed a preview of one of the songs from our upcoming mini-musical written by Catherine & Georgina Wilson, The Wolf's Tale, that we are currently rehearsing.

While the groups were busy setting up, two Christmas Crackers, Val & Jenny Everall, entertained the audience with festive jokes!

During the interval, we all enjoyed yummy refreshments that were supplied by Greenside Music Groups; they all went down a treat!

We were really proud of how well everyone performed under pressure, especially in front of such a large audience! We're grateful to be able to work with such a talented group of musicians, wherever they are on their musical journey. 

Thank you to everyone for providing such a fantastic finale to a successful year of music making!