Friday November 25th saw the Music Services' Christmas Concert take place at Castleford Civic Centre. A full auditorium enjoyed performances by the Wakefield Youth Brass Band, Wakefield Youth Choir and Wakefield Youth Symphony Orchestra.
The Youth Brass Band kicked off the evening in fine style and set up a festive spirit in the audience, starting their programme with 'Christmas Spectacular' by Mark Williams. Following the band, the Youth Choir engagingly sang a varied programme with contributions from Irving Berlin to Howard Shore ('Into the West' from the film 'Return of the King') The highlights for many in the audience though would have been the two solos from Zoe Dunphy ('Killing Me Softly') and Peter Morgan ('Come With Me').
Following the interval, the choir joined with the orchestra to perform two traditional carols, 'Sans Day Carol' and 'I Saw Three Ships', both arranged by John Rutter. From this point onwards, the Orchestra took over the entertainment with a programme consisting of Sibelius' 'Finlandia'and Howard Blake's 'The Snowman'. The orchestra responded sensitively to the direction of their new conductor, Lee Benstead and produced an excellent ensemble performance of both pieces. 'The Snowman' was a particularly interesting choice of repertoire as it features a soprano soloist and narrator, ably performed on the night by Robert Watson and Wakefield's Corporate Director of Education John Mc Cloud. In another first for the orchestra, the performance was augmented by a visual presentation to accompany the thematic music.
For information on forthcoming concerts by Wakefield Music Services, please see the Events Diary section of the website.
