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BBC Big Band at RHS

The BBC Big Band, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading and most versatile orchestras, performed to a full house at the Royal Hospital School last Saturday evening.

Following a morning workshop with the RHS pupils, during which the conductor, Barry Forgie, and members of the band worked on existing and new repertoire with the students, the BBC musicians took to the stage for a two-hour concert in a packed Assembly Hall.  Wowing the 800-strong audience with classics such as Stardust, Love for Sale and My Funny Valentine, the band demonstrated a standard of live performance, individual musicianship and ensemble playing which is hard to come by these days.

The RHS pupils also had a chance to shine, opening the concert with what is fast becoming their signature tune, Hikky-Burr, before joining the BBC Big Band for a joint performance of I Left My Heart in San Francisco.  However, the star of the show was, without a doubt, Year 13 pupil Simone Rossouw, who stunned the audience with her rendition of the Streisand hit I’m Still Here.  Backed by the BBC Big Band, she dazzled the crowd with her maturity, vocal prowess and stage presence – it was difficult at times to remind oneself that she was a Royal Hospital School pupil and not a professional!  Not yet, anyway…

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The evening was rounded off with the perennial Benny Goodman favourite Sing, Sing, Sing, complete with rousing encore.  The band’s legendary leader, Barry Forgie, who has run the band since 1977 said: “Tonight it felt like we were playing to a large family, rather than an audience.  We really felt the warmth on stage.”

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