One of the things I will most miss about leaving our Liverpool school is conducting the school Orchestra. They are a great bunch of young musicians, about 28 of them in total, mainly wind instruments (woodwind + brass) with a violin, 2 'cellos and a double bass. Over the years I've been conducting them and doing arrangements of music for them they've developed into a tight unit, adept at swing as well as straight rhythms, playing a mixture of classical, jazz and military band pieces. Whilst I did push them quite hard at times, we were always able to have a good laugh together, their natural Scouse humour always to the fore.
Here's a photo taken with a few of them after the second of our two end of year Last Night Of The Proms concerts with the school Choir, Jazz Band and soloists. I'll hopefully have more photos to post in the next few days.
From Sept. I'll be facing the challenge of restarting the school Orchestra at our Southampton school. I have heard that there is a good core of talented musicians there too, so I look forward to working with them.
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