Talented school musicians enjoy trio of shows
Kilgraston School’s musicians had a packed calendar last weekend with no less than three public performances.
Believed to be Scotland’s only school‘all girl’pipes and drums band, the girls were particularly delighted to have been asked to join the 100-strong event at Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh – an idea initiated by a pupil back in 2014 - on the morning of the 100th anniversary of the WW1 armistice.
Sunday was a very busy day for the young musicians with the evening witnessing Kilgraston pupils also taking part in the WWI centenary Concert at St John’s Kirk in Perth.
The concert was a collaboration between Kilgraston, Craigclowan, Strathallan, Forgandenny and Dunbarney schools.
Interspersed with pupils from each school reading poignant letters from the front line, a moving performance of Karl Jenkins’The Armed Man (A Mass for Peace, choral suite) filled the kirk.
Before travelling to the capital on Sunday, Kilgraston’s pipes and drums band had taken part in the school’s annual St Cecilia Concert on Friday night.
They entertained a packed chapel with foot-tapping renditions of ‘Green Hills’,‘Scotland the Brave’,‘Battle of the Somme’ and‘The Bloody Fields of Flanders’.
The St Cecilia Concert was an hour-and-a-half medley also featuring numbers from Annie, The Musical and The Jungle Book by the animated, and clearly very happy, junior school performers.
During a weekend of national remembrance, fiddles, clarsach, guitars, soloists and the chamber choir ensured every emotion was experienced at the school’s concert.
The chamber choir’s rendition of Karl Jenkins’ ‘Hymn Before Action’was particularly haunting, however the junior choir’s WW1 medley – including ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, ‘Pack up your troubles’and ‘Keep the home fires burning’– lifted the mood and ensured enthusiastic audience participation.
The St Cecilia concert raised £84 for The Inspiration Orchestra which is a Scottish charity enabling disabled people to access music learning.
Jason McAuley, director of music at Kilgraston, said: “On this special and poignant weekend of remembrance, the Kilgraston girls gave so Pipes and Drums performing at the St Cecilia Concert Friday, November 9 much of their time and talents to help us all remember those who died for us.
“The girls are a credit to the music department and to the school.
“I was very proud of their hard work and dedication.”