Balcombe hosts brilliant Music Scholar and Schola Cantorum concert

On the evening of Wednesday 16th October, Balcombe’s St Mary’s Church hosted the termly music scholar’s and Schola Cantorum concert. After an electric jazz chapel service, 21 music students were whisked away to nearby Balcombe to present their superb musical achievements to parents, teachers, and the general public alike.

The night was bookended by Scholar Cantorum, Ardingly’s auditioned chamber choir, who performed music ranging from Charles Woods’s ‘Oculi Omnium’ to Bob Chilcott’s’ Lullaby in Blue’ and Ken Burton’s arrangement of ‘Deep River’ (which had been work-shopped the week before by the choral ensemble Apollo 5). An audience favourite was Ola Gjeilo’s ‘Northern Lights’, performed with subtlety and stature. They should be commended for their nuance and clarity shown through their performances.

Between the two Schola sets were eight soloists who displayed their talents on a wide range of instruments. Jack Hodgkinson opened on the violin with ‘El Choclo’, a vibrant tango by Villoldo, followed by Will Favier-Parsons on the piano playing ‘Presto Agitato’ from Beethoven’s ‘Moonight Sonata’. Rebecca Horton then performed ‘Adagio’ from Dvorak’s sextet. The first half was concluded by Enrico Jaeckle’s beautiful rendition of ‘Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words’ on the cello.

The second half began with Laura Crooks showing off her trombone skills with ‘Saint-Saens’s Cavatine’, followed by Angie Wyatt’s sensitive performance of the ‘Adagio’ from Bach’s Flute Sonata in E. Louis Edwards-Munro provided another lovely performance, this time of Khachaturian’s ‘Nocture’. The final soloist was Mark Wang, who played Reineke’s ‘Notturno’ on the French Horn.

In all, the Schola Cantorum and music scholars should be immensely proud of themselves and their hard work that led to some beautiful music making.