DGS Senior Choir sing at The Royal Albert Hall

On 27th November, the Dartford Grammar School Senior Choir, along with 1,500 other singers from other schools, sang Händel’s Messiah at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, as part of the Scratch© Youth Messiah 2016.

All young choirs were welcome: independent, church, school and local authority choirs. We joined a professional orchestra and four professional soloists, conducted by Ben Parry (Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain). We had a short morning rehearsal, in which we ran through movements from the Messiah. We then had a short break to have lunch, before we performed for the public. The Scratch® Youth Messiah featured Händel’s famous choruses (‘And the Glory of the Lord’, ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Amen’) in which everyone sang.

More advanced singers sang other more challenging parts of the Messiah. Some singers in the Senior Choir sang the whole work! The DGS basses were particularly impressive! On behalf of the Senior Choir, I must thank Mrs du Plessis and Mrs Metcalf for running rehearsals for the choir, and Mrs Richardson for her support in rehearsals and during the event. It was a truly amazing once-in-a-lifetime event and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.