Melodians Christmas Concert 2014
The 2014 Christmas Concert was a great success and finished with a well-deserved and enthusiastic round of applause from the audience. The concert was on Saturday 13th December at Henry Cavendish School in Balham which is their base.
Some comments from their fans at the concert: “This was the best concert ever!”, “The Melodians are getting better every year I come!” and especially “Loved seeing the young ones playing”.
The concert started with three spots by some of the groups from the Henry Cavendish School Steel Pan Club. These young players aged 10 to 11 are tutored by Cheynne from the Melodians using the Melodians’ instruments. Class 6C played the theme from Skyfall, Class 6W played Yellow Bird and the Steel Pan Club played Lambada. The group have developed tremendously since the previous year and there was an enthusiastic response from the audience.
The Melodians then played a varied selection of 9 pieces from their repertoire including 3 new additions that they learnt during the year: Greensleeves, Autumn Leaves and Get Lucky. They finished with a topical piece that they have brought back recently ‘Walking in the Air’.
After the speeches, the Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor Adedamola Aminu presented the awards:
- The Terry Noel Trophy for Best Attendance went to Rebecca Luff Smith
- The Robert Thompson Trophy for Most Promising Player also went to Rebecca Luff Smith
- The Jeremy Deller Trophy for Most Improved Player went to Yvette Walcott
- The British Council Trophy for Player of the Year went to Richard Hobson
- There were also certificates presented to 4 of the young players (Kiya Persad, Giovanna Recchia, Ella Louise Nguyen and Rianna Hobson for their dedication to Pan Playing within the Melodians).
There was a big rush to buy the Melodians new CD called ‘Melodians Magic’ which was released on 11th December and was on sale at the Concert. Plus there were T shirts, designed by Jeremy Deller and the Fraser Muggeridge Studio, on sale as featured in their concert at the Turner Contemporary in Margate in October. These are all fund-raising efforts to keep the Melodians going and raised over £1000 for them.