Upper Beeding Primary School: Choir of the Year 2019 – Arun Young Musicians Festival

Choir of the Year 2019 – Arun Young Musicians Festival

The locality boys’ vocal group, ‘The BackBeatz’ was recently named ‘Choir of the Year’ at the Arun Young Musicians Festival. This group, based at Upper Beeding Primary School and led by Corrine Wellby, performed two pieces, One Moment, One People by Beccy Owen and a traditional unaccompanied Macedonian in two parts called Shto Me E Milo.

The boys were selected to participate in the Final which was held at Chatsmore High School in Goring along with other talented musicians from across West Sussex for the Arun Music Society’s ‘Young Musician of the Year’.

Having taken part in a choral class, the boys achieved a gold medal along with an ‘Outstanding’ rating. The adjudicator, Neil Jenkins, a professional tenor for over forty-five years and Choir Musical Director spoke highly of the boys’ performance including comments such as ‘a well-disciplined group’, ‘the vocal timbre of the large group was well-integrated and they were able to project the text clearly within it’ and wrote that the way in which the boys sang Shto Mi E Milo ‘was impressive!’.

The boys worked hard towards this competition and their passion and commitment to singing shone through in both of their performances. They rehearse weekly after school at Upper Beeding Primary with boys from both Upper Beeding and Ashurst. The group is open to other boys within the local area.

They were recently sponsored by Charanga, an award-winning music resource for primary music, recently achieving Best Digital Resource winner, who purchased their polo shirts which they wear for external performances. They are an absolute pleasure to work with; they are never fazed by any piece of music and are willing to give everything a go. The group continues to grow from strength to strength.

Report submitted by Mrs Corrine Wellby, Upper Beeding Music Leader