School choirs hit the high notes

Pink ponies and heroes featured in Rotary's annual 'Let's Sing' junior choir competition

Spalding Rotary Club has a long tradition of promoting and hosting events that encourage young people thrive and achieve their potential.

This week, we presented our annual ‘Let’s Sing’ children’s choir competition at Springfields Events & Conference Centre.

This year three choirs took part, each singing two songs of their choice.

The judges were local musical experts Christine Bozwood-Davies and Zeph Churchill.

Christine is an alumni of Trinity Lanban Conservatoire of Music and is the founder and Musical Director of Spalding Community Choir.

Zeph is dedicated to promoting mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and building community through music.

The first choir to perform were Act II, under the direction of Karl Gernert, who also accompanied them on keyboard. This was Act II’s first appearance in our ‘Let’s Sing’ competition and they made an immediate impact, singing a punchy version of Rachel Platten’s ‘Fight Song’. This was followed by ‘I’m a Believer’. The choir really set a high bar for the following acts.

The judges said that Act II sang well, supporting each other with some lovely vocals and strong voices.

Next up, was our newest choir. Holbeach Primary School choir was only formed a couple of months ago by Abbie Linder. The 11 children couldn’t match the volume of the larger choirs, but they more than made up for it with their enthusiasm. They sung ‘Count on Me’ followed by Chappell Roan’s popular ‘Pink Pony Club’.

It was in keeping with the lovely atmosphere of the evening that Act II’s Karl Gernert also accompanied them on the keyboard.

The judges commented that it was particularly lovely to see that each child had an opportunity to sing some solo lines, and felt that for a small, newly-formed choir, they did very well.

The final act of the evening were last year’s winners, from St Norberts Catholic Primary School with musical director Paul Gilbert. It was clear from the opening notes that St Norberts were determined to hold on to their crown, with ‘Sing’, followed by ‘Hero is my Middle Name’.

The judges described St Norbert’s performance as very confident with, very good vocals and a lovely stage presence.

The judges had a tough time, scoring each choir on several criteria, including their technical skills and harmonies. All three choirs had been a pleasure to listen to, and performed well in groups as well as soloists.

After a nail-biting 15 minutes, it was announced that St Norberts had won, with particular praise for ‘Hero is my Middle Name’, which they performed as an encore.

Rotary Club President Graham Dawson presented the winning choir with a £200 prize.

Club President Graham Dawson said ‘We love to host events that help young people thrive. The evening was a great success and we received many positive comments from parents’.

Money raised from ticket sales contributes towards our charitable work including our Junior Chef competition and Rotary’s Young Leader residential courses.

If you want to know more about how you can support our charitable work, read more here.

If you lead a primary school choir and would like to take part in next year’s ‘Let’s Sing’ competitoon, please contact us here