As you are aware, the annual UVHS Christmas Festival will be staged on Wednesday 13^th December at The Coro, starting at 7.30pm.  For those who have attended in the past you will be aware that it is one of the most popular Music Department events on the calendar with over 150 students performing to a sell-out audience.

This year’s programme will include the Wind Band, Choir, String Orchestra, Junior Band, Flute & Clarinet Choirs, Chamber Choir and Brass & Saxophone Ensembles.  There will also be seasonal readings and festive audience carols.

Historically tickets sell very quickly for this event, so we always offer the booking site to parents for a few days of advance sale before they go on general release to the public (on Monday 30^th October). With this in mind booking will open from Thursday 26^th October – Sunday 29^th October for parents & friends.  For the advance sale tickets there will be a password requested which will be posted on this site on Wednesday 25^th October

Prices are:  Balcony – £12 (£7 U18); Stalls £10/£8 (£6/£5 U18)

Are your children playing their orchestral instrument at Grade 4 level and above?
Would they love this opportunity to be part of something special?

The Cumbria Youth Orchestra is a vibrant and exciting ensemble whose aim is to develop young musicians’ skills and give them a flavour of what is possible when they are part of quality music-making outfit!

Many of our children in the Music Services across Cumbria are having regular lessons and loving that! However, playing in an ensemble really brings their new skills along, not to mention the opportunity to socialise, make new friends and experience amazing music!

There are some amazing opportunities for the Cumbria Youth Orchestra this academic year including:

Rehearsals with Conductor Joe Davies
Wind In The Willows in March/April – residential rehearsals and performance of this much-loved classic.
Performances at Kendal Calling and SolFest Music Festivals in July and August (tbc).

More details and a form to sign up can be found here https://cumbriamusichub.com/cumbria-youth-orchestra/

Hope to see you there! 

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The Little Big Band engagement at The Farmers in Lowick has moved to Sat 2nd December (1-3pm) from the previous Nov 18th. Please let Mr B know if you are NOT available.

Rehearsal as usual this Wed from 3.30pm-4.30pm.

After a phenomenal start to the year with 2 great public performances over the last 2 weeks, there will be no rehearsal for the LBB this Wednesday as I have a meeting after school – many apologies. We will start to develop the set list the following week so that we can deliver our first gig on Saturday 18th November at The Farmers in Lowick.

If any student wishes to see “Peter Pan Goes Wrong”, performed by the infamous Mischief Theatre Company, at the Liverpool Empire on Friday 20th October please see the letter below and get replies in to Mr Butler as soon as possible. The offer will be going out more widely after Tuesday.

The link to the Blog site and the Calendar is here https://blog.ulverstonvictoria.cumbria.sch.uk/performingarts/calendar/

After the first week of music tuition and with rehearsals all getting back to normal, I thought I’d give you some updates. Also, the Calendar attached to this site is about to be updated with the bookings that we have already got this year – please make sure that you are aware of dates.

WIND BAND – what a great start to the new year. We are already working on some new pieces and will be starting on the Christmas repertoire very soon. Well done to all the players, especially newcomers and those sitting in new positions. It is promising to be a really good year and another concert tour is on the books for the last week of the Summer Term 2024 (more details to follow).

SWING BAND – WOW!!!! Fantastic! Especially considering the ‘new look’ sax sections and new rotation system in the trumpet section. Congratulations are also due to Jaden, Briony and Freya who all performed great solo voice auditions on Friday with the band (despite the nerves!) and have all ‘got the job’! Also a huge well done to the Little Big Band (again quite a few new players) which gave its debut performance last Thursday at Lower School Prizegiving and will again be playing at Open Evening this Thursday.

CHOIRS – a solid start for whole-school choir, although we are still missing some singers from rehearsals (yr11 singing students!!). We are already looking at the repertoire for the Christmas Festival. 6th Form Chamber Choir will re-launch this Wednesday (1.25-1.50pm) led by both myself and Mrs Eccles and will have some of their own engagements in December – this is really exciting as we have not see this ensemble since 2019.

STRINGS – it is fantastic that Mrs Ball is re-developing string provision at UVHS and it is a delight to see so many more students now learning violin/viola/cello. We are also re-launching the UVHS String Quartet (which hasn’t been functional for many years).

JUNIOR BAND – Great to see this group re-start last week BUT we are missing a few players. A friendly reminder that all yr7-9 wind players who have lessons in school and/or are in Wind Band MUST attend.

ENSEMBLES – gradually getting under way. I must apologise that I have been unavailable at lunchtimes so far due to my visits to primary schools. Once Open Evening is out of the way (this Thursday) all of the ensembles will be up and running, including the return of the Drum Corps!!!!

Well done to all the students who have made such a great start to the year, and thank you to all parents for their support. Details of tickets for Christmas and the Marines will be out in a couple of weeks.

All instrumental lessons start on Monday – parents should be receiving emails from teachers over the weekend.

If you have recently left UVHS and were in the Swing Band, we URGENTLY need your band shirts returning to school (the Little Big band have their first engagement on Thursday at The Coro and only half of them have a shirt!!!!!!).

Thank you in anticipation of getting some of them back (as they were actually paid for by Friends of UVHs Music)