Students at The Gateway Academy raised the roof at the recent music concert held at the school on Monday 14 December. The Christmas concert is now established as a yearly event with the purpose of giving students performance opportunities in front of a live audience.

The acts included the Gateway Choir (run by Academy music teacher Miss Matthews), Student bands from year 8 and some fantastic solo and duet vocal performances. Of note was Georgia Calvert’s performances of Happy by Leona Lewis and The Greatest Love of all by Whitney Houston. Georgia is a year 7 student at the Academy and already exhibits a rare talent for singing.

A fantastic version of Jay Z and Alicia Keys song Empire State of Mind performed by music BTEC students Siobhan Omoruyi and Aimwa Ero was inspirational, showing true diversity in the material picked by the students.

The students were backed by a professional band directed by the Academy’s head of Music, Mr. Mike King. Singing tutor at the Academy Miss Katherine Clark also took to the stage to perform two solo numbers with the band and to support students by providing backing vocals.

Mr. King stated, “This is the second year we have held this event and the increase in the standard of performance has been truly amazing. The idea of providing a professional band and giving the choice of music over to the students entirely has really worked. To have students like this to work with is a music teacher’s dream. The creative arts faculty staff led by Richard Foster have, as always, provided fantastic support for this event. It’s great to work as part of a friendly and effective team that readily gives so much of their own time to the students.”

We look forward to the next concert in 2010.