Written by Nick Adgemis, Performing Arts Director
At YCIS Pudong, April and May are undoubtedly the busiest and most prosperous months on the school calendar. It is fantastic to think that all of our students from ECE to Upper Secondary have had multiple, memorable musical and dramatic experiences to add to their growing performance resumé throughout the last month.
Following the Qingming holiday, our Year 5 & 6 students stepped into the limelight and put on their annual spring musical. This year’s spectacle, The Dracula Rock Show, was met with all matter of chills and thrills, including a decent dose of trademark puns and a lot of laughs. A huge congratulations must go Ms. Aliki Watson-Jones and Ms. Renae Livermore for their fantastic work with the 54-member student cast.
With a view to broadening the musical experience for all students at YCIS Pudong, April also saw the commencement of our annual K4 Introductory Violin Classes. Our Violin teachers, Ms. Sophie Zhang and Ms. Mira Yu have been taking our K4 students through their paces, while they get to know the basics of the instrument and experience some of the joys of music-making from a new perspective.
Our In-School Individual Instrumental Programme (IIIP) has once again offered opportunities for a large cohort of students to learn music throughout the 2018-2019 academic year. On April 22, 24 and 27, more than 180 students from IIIP gave individual performances as part of the annual IIIP Recital Series, which was a fantastic success for all involved. Additionally, our YCEF Musical Artist-In-Residence and Head of Instrumental Studies, Dr. Yeung Yu, visited from Hong Kong to be on-hand for the midweek recital, give his own performance and also offer a masterclass to some of our IIIP piano students.
Not a week later, focus was firmly in the setting of 1960s New York, with final preparations underway for this year’s Secondary Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, featuring a lead cast of students from Year 7-10, a Year 7 chorus, a student orchestra and stage crew. Many long-timers at YCIS expressed that this was maybe the best show yet and it was a well-deserved accolade for all involved. Congratulations must go out to all the cast, chorus, band and crew that worked to make Little Shopan outstanding success, including Year 10 Drama student Natasha Shen (technical director), Mr. Neil Campbell (set construction), Ms. Aliki Watson-Jones (chorus/choreography), Ms. Gillian Skingley (music director) and Ms. Brandi Burtts (director).
As this month’s newsletter goes to press, we will have just held our YCIS Pudong Music Gala and K4 Musical for 2019. Be sure to subscribe to the YCIS Pudong Performing Arts News Blog for all the latest information on our Music and Drama activities.
