The final of this year’s Young Singer of the Year 2014 competition is taking place on Wednesday 5 November at 7pm in Drama Studios 1 and 2.  Tickets cost £3 (£2 for concessions) and can be purchased from Mrs Dippie in the Performing Arts base or Music Studio 4.

Roxie Rocks Williamwood! The performing arts department are delighted to present a short trailer of our pupils getting prepared for the first performance of this year’s school show CHICAGO. Pupils from S1 to S6 were involved in every aspect of putting this musical together; actors, musicians, dancers and a production team. The performances were a huge success!  Trailer can be viewed here

Congratualtions to all the students involved in our annual Jazz Festival. It was a fabulous evening with music from the Big Band, Senior choir, Senior Vocal Ensemble, soloists plus special guests.  The guest artists were the Williams Quartet, which includes two of our students Mark Hendry S6 and Tom Potter S2, and the RCS Saxophone Quartet.

Congratulations to S5 pupil Lewis Graham who has got into NYOGB this session on clarinet.

On Sunday 26th October three of our senior pupils have been invited to perform at a Malawi event in Giffnock South Parish Church at 7pm. S6 pupils Frances Paton and Ishara Waidyarathna both went to Malawi in June with a group of Williamwood pupils. They are going to perform on cello, piano and voice.  S5 pupil Jessica Gaff has also been asked to sing at the concert.  The evening is going to conclude with the East Renfrewshire Schools Jazz Band performing.

Congratulations to the Senior Girls Vocal Ensemble who have been selected to perform at the SQA Star Awards Ceremony on Friday 7 November.  The ensemble have been together for three years now and are all S6 pupils. They were auditioned by representatives of the SQA in October and faced competition from various schools and colleges across Scotland. This is a prestigious event and a fantastic achievement for the girls. The ensemble have performed at concerts and shows within Williamwood over the past few years and won the Vocal Ensemble class at the Glasgow Music Festival earlier this year. They are looking forward to performing at the awards ceremony.  Well done!

In Williamwood we have a huge number of talented musicians and we like to celebrate their achievements with the presentation of half and full colour ties.  In this session so far the following students have received this award:

Half colours

Jack Addie S1            sings in the RSNO Junior Chorus

Aalia Shah S1            plays violin in the East Renfrewshire Senior String Orchestra

Liana Storey S1         studies piano at the Junior Conservatoire and received distinction in  her Grade 7 exam

Eilidh Galloway S3      studies clarinet and piano at the Junior Conservatoire

Becky Paton S3          studies violin at the Junior Conservatoire

Dan McKinnon S4       Grade 5 theory with merit

Full colours

Ben Drake S1            plays bassoon in the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain

Blair Dickinson S3      pipes in the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland

Emma Wilson S3        plays violin in NYOS Junior Orchestra

Lewis Graham S5      plays clarinet in NYOS Senior Orchestra

Andrew MacLeod S5 plays trombone in NYOS Senior Orchestra

Beth McNeil S5          plays tenor drum in Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia, the World Champion Drum Corps at the recent Pipe Band World Championship

A number of our pupils are performing at Williamwood Parish Church tomorrow between 11am and 12.30pm.  The S5 pupils involved are:

 Jessica Gaff – voice,  Andrew MacLeod – trombone and  Andrew Vettraino- bassoon and piano

This event is free so please come along and support our students

Congratulations to all the pupils that received an award at the Senior Awards Ceremony last night.  The music award winners were:  Intermediate 1 Ross Finlay, Intermediate 2 Andrew Vettraino, Higher Ishara Waidyarathna and Advanced Higher Richard Scholfield.  The musical entertainment on the night was provided by Lewis Graham S5 on clarinet,  Andrew MacLeod S5 on trombone and Ishara Waidyarathna S6 on voice.  All three performed beautifully and thoroughly entertained everyone.

The West of Scotland Orchestral Trust has established a memorial award in memory of one of their past students Michael Stoakes.  To receive the award staff decide which pupils have been the most outstanding members of the symphony orchestra  and the concert band.  This year I am delighted that two Williamwood pupils received the award.  Richard Scholfield for the Concert Band and Stuart Vettraino was the joint winner for the Symphony Orchestra.