Brackenfield School Junior Choir in Harrogate has reached the national final of “Music for Youth” at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on Wednesday 8 July 2015.
As many as 8,000 talented young musicians, aged 5–21 from all over the UK will descend on Birmingham for the week-long festival, bringing the city’s world-class stages, its streets and squares to life with music of all kinds. As finalists, Brackenfield will be performing in the main stage event taking place at the Symphony Hall. The venues and the range of music on offer is vast – from brass bands, steel pans and choirs to rock, pop & urban, folk groups and orchestral ensembles.
Brackenfield were chosen to perform in the final after their rousing performance at the regional Music for Youth event held at St. Aidan’s School in March. Their winning “Medley from Les Miserables” celebrates the 30th anniversary of Schonberg and Boublil’s global stage sensation. The adjudicators loved the contrasting and powerful songs in the medley that “took the audience through a journey of passion, love, hope and resilience of the human spirit.” They were amazed that such a young choir could produce such a powerful sound.
Their performance at the final will be dedicated to Felix Powell, composer of the World War marching song, “Pack up your Troubles” and the Great- Great Grandfather of former Brackenfield pupil and choir member, Charlie Parkin.
Director of Music at Brackenfield, Helen Leaf, was delighted that her choir had been chosen to perform at this prestigious event. “After winning the Harrogate Festival last year and performing on ITV, this is a fabulous reward for our talented choir, made all the more special by the fact that it is a non-selective choir, any of the children at Brackenfield can join…..and they do!”
Brackenfield Headteacher, Mrs Sowa was delighted for the choir and for Ms Leaf: This is a well- deserved achievement for Ms. Leaf and the choir. Being involved in music myself in many different ways, I am delighted to see our choir doing so well. We are all looking forward to our very special visit to Birmingham.
Following Brackenfield’s success at the Music for Youth regional festival and prior to performing in Birmingham, the choir have been invited to perform with G4’s Jonathan Ansell at Harrogate Theatre on 21 June as part of “DanSing for Shine”, a concert for the national charity, Shine. Danny Mills, the charity’s patron, will compere the event.
