Halloween Band Concert

The Colonel Gray Music Department rounded off a busy week on the Friday, 10th of December, 2024, by showcasing their talents to the student body with a morning concert. This followed a public concert the previous evening, and an appearance on Island Morning earlier in the morning. To make room for the concert, the school operated on an one-hour delay schedule.

The Junior Concert Band began with ‘Highlights From The Grinch’ and ‘Highlights From The Polar Express’, both of which were movie scores. They then played ‘The Name’s Claus, Santa Claus’, which blended the James Bond theme with several Christmas songs, including ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen’, and ‘Good King Wenceslas’, among many others. Ms. Keelin Howe assisted the band on trumpet.

The Junior Concert Band was followed by the Colonel Gray Choir, which performed two songs: ‘These Bells Will Ring’, which the choir had performed earlier that day on Island Morning, and ‘Malakatumba’, a gibberish song that incorporated clapping and stomping. 

Following the choir was the Senior Jazz Band. They performed a latin jazz number called ‘Que Pasa’, the seasonal classic ‘Let It Snow’, and Gordon Goodwin’s ‘Crunchy Frog’. ‘Que Pasa’ featured a solo by Golnar Saegh on the trombone, and each song featured a solo by Peter Ngo on the Tenor Saxophone. Ngo wore his signature knitted yellow hat and orange-tinted glasses.

Rounding out the concert was the Senior Concert Band. They kicked things off with the Ukraine Bell Carol and a medley of songs from the movie Up, before moving into ‘Siege’ by Randall Standridge, which Mr. Doiron described as having the same feel as the sort of music featured in films such as The Lord of the Rings.

Ms. Kelsea McLean and Mr. Shawn Doiron were the conductors of this performance.

Throughout the concert, Mr. Doiron thanked students for their attention. He said that Colonel Gray’s band program was the ‘hugest’ one on the Island, and that the total value of all of the instruments in use is around two-hundred-fifty thousand dollars. 

After the concert ended, students packed away the folding chairs and returned to their classes.

Written by: Liew Gorman

Reviewed by: Arabella Slote, Fiona Le, Kevin Li, Liew Gorman, Ariel Wu, Nancy Milton

Published by: Ariel Wu