IGS MUSIC SHOWCASE

Thursday 23rd November

King's Hall, Ilkley

Last Thursday 23 November saw over 130 IGS pupils and an audience of well over 400 people come together at The King’s Hall, Ilkley for the IGS Music Showcase. The audience were treated to a fantastic showcase of supreme musical talent by IGS pupils across nine bands, the IGS orchestra, Lord of the Strings, the music theatre club, the pop choir, the ukulele group and the jazz band. Saskia White and Niamh Goodall (both year 9) were the perfect hosts for the fun filled evening.

The concert included the second year of the IGS Battle of the Bands 2023 with great performances from B.El.T (y9 & 11), The Flying Glue Sticks (y8), Shaded (y10), Distortion (y7, 8 & 9), the Squidwashers (y7), The Argument (y9 & 10), Duk Tape (y10 & 12), Ayrborne (y8) and Electric Blue (y8, 9 & 10). The judges were overwhelmed by the high standard of performance from all the participating bands and said it was very hard to choose a winner.  Congratulations to all of the bands for working incredibly hard to perform so impressively!  Ultimately there can only be one winner and the judges were delighted to award first place to Shaded for their stunning performance of The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.  Shaded will now go through to represent IGS at the Red Kite Battle of the Bands on Thursday 18 January at The Wardrobe, Leeds.  This is a brand new event that will see up to fifteen schools battle it out in front of a team of judges headed up by Sam Nicholls (Founder & director of Music:Leeds). This will be a fantastic opportunity for Shaded to showcase their talents alongside leading musicians from other local schools within the Red Kite Alliance.  We will keep you updated with their progress and hope you will join me in wishing them the best of luck!

Thanks must go to the many staff from IGS and the King’s Hall and backstage pupils that worked tirelessly to ensure that the event ran smoothly. It was a marvelous night packed full of musical talent and we hope to do it again next year!

Pupil quotes:

“The opportunity to perform at the King’s Hall was such an amazing experience as it’s a much bigger venue with an amazing light and sound system. The show provided another chance to sing & perform with the many other pupils who share the same interest in music and for their families to enjoy the comforts of a theatre auditorium.” Isabelle (Year 10) 

I really loved playing in the Orchestra and Jazz Band in the Music Showcase. It was a busy run up but the hard work paid off as it was lots of fun. I loved listening to the other bands and would really encourage others to go and watch or to get involved next year. Alex (Year 7)

At the IGS Music Showcase event I was part of the Front of House team. This involved me welcoming people to Kings Hall, ensuring that they had tickets and then directing them on where to go to find their seats. I was also stood in the Winter Garden during the interval in case anyone had any questions. I was able to work with the Kings Hall Front of House staff and they instructed me and the rest of the IGS Front of House team on how to conduct the role and then allowed us to choose specifically what we were doing as our role for the evening: I chose to welcome people to the venue, however others decided to show people to their seats. I really enjoyed the evening as it gave me some actual hands-on experience in working in a Music event, which is really valuable to me as I plan to study Music Production/Music Business at University (not to mention being able to watch the concert as well!). Sam (Year 13)

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