A SCHOOL community bounced back from the pandemic in spectacular fashion with a whole school concert featuring hundreds of performers at a world famous venue.
An audience of parents packed the Sage in Gateshead for a two hours extravaganza of music, song and dance by more than 700 students from Barnard Castle School and Prep School.
Barnard Castle School headmaster Tony Jackson told the audience: “I cannot begin to tell you how special it is to welcome you to the Sage Gateshead.
“Back in March 2020, after six months of rehearsals for the school musical Made in Dagenham, there was only one performance before the world was locked down.
“It is poignant that this event falls exactly two years later and incredible that we get to come back together in such a spectacular way.”
Mr Jackson told the audience that throughout the intervening two years, the school’s dedicated staff had done all they could to maintain momentum on the musical and performance front and it was their commitment to the cause that had resulted in this “amazing event”.
“This programme is an example of how we have tried to bounce back following the hiatus and it cannot get any bigger or better than this evening,” he added.
Director of music Richard Dawson said: “This evening is a celebration of the strength of our school community and the role that music plays in the lives of our young Barnardians.
“One of our core values as a music department at Barney is that every child is a musician and this simple but powerful belief lies at the heart of everything that we aim to cultivate.
“Nowhere is that more evident than in this concert, where every pupil takes to the stage in one of the country’s great concert halls to make music together: an opportunity we hope that they will never forget. They have all worked incredibly hard to put on the show and we could not be more proud of them.”
The audience enjoyed a varied programme ranging from excerpts from the Greatest Showman, Pirates of the Caribbean and Frozen as well as the West Indian Folk Song Yellow Bird, One Direction’s Best Song Ever and Henry Mancini’s Moon River.
The second half featured performances from the recent whole-school musical Oliver, as well as more classical and popular music, ending with a whole-school performance of Pharell Williams’ Happy.