The Lord Mayor's Christmas Concert 2008
Posted by animefan on Thu, 04 Dec 2008.
The Lord of Mayor of Leicester holds a Christmas concert every December to raise money for their chosen charity. Presenting the concert was Leicestershire Arts in Education, which celebrates it's 60th anniversary (1948-2008).
This year the current Lord Mayor, Manjula P Sood, has chosen to support the Special Olympics which is taking place in Leicester from 25th July - 31st July 2009. Manjula's appeal aims to assist city and county athletes with learning disabilities to be able to compete in the Special Olympics and to help celebrate and research their achievements.
"Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt" (oath of Special Olympics athletes)
Leicestershire Arts in Education's annual tradition is to perform at De Monfort Hall to support the Lord Mayor's chosen charity. Arts in Education is the Arts Service of the Leicestershire County and Leicester City Councils. They provide teaching for thousands of pupils in music, dance and drama in schools and colleges and this gives young people the oppurtunity to perform at venues with large audiences.
The concert involved the Junior Band, Intermediate Band, Junior and Senior Steel Pan Ensembles, Training Band and the Massed Primary Schools Choir. Each group performed various pieces and the Massed Primary Schools Choir sang songs from Sing Up.
Sing Up is a national singing programme that aims to ensure good quality singing is central to children's lives; wherever they may be. Songs from Sing Up that were performed at the concert included Roller Ghoster by Alan Simmons, Life is a Wonderful thing by Mark and Helen Johnson and Animal Antics by Rebecca Lawrence.
The audience didn't just watch the concert, they also participated. The Training Band performed four songs from the Broadway Musical and recently released film Mamma Mia! in which the audience could sing along to the songs if they wished too. There was even a joint piece to finish the concert in which the Massed Choir and Training Band peformed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!
Overall, the concert was a great success with an extremely good turn out. I wasn't able to watch the concert as I performed with the Training Band but from what I could hear and from what I gathered from the audience, it was a successful and entertaining evening which really created a Christmas spirit.