Those Summer Nights....

SUMMER TERM PERFORMANCE EVENING

On Thursday 14 June pupils from schools across Portsmouth came together to perform in the Portsmouth Music Hub Summer Performance Evening.

From trumpet to ukulele, piano to singing, a huge variety of solo and group performances delighted the assembled audience of family and friends.

The Performance Evenings are held every term and provide an excellent forum for young musicians to celebrate their progress and develop their performance skills.

FREEDOM TRAIN

International Make Music Day was celebrated on 21 June when over one hundred children from local schools joined together to form a massed choir, performing spirituals and gospel songs in a special concert at St. Mary's Church in Portsmouth.

Involving pupils from Milton Park Primary School, Wimborne Junior School and Weyford Nursery and Primary School, the event was presented in partnership with Portsmouth Festivities, which this year celebrated the theme of freedom to mark the centenary of women's suffrage and the hundredth birthday of Nelson Mandela.

As well as the massed choir performing songs such as 'The Gospel Train' and 'Wade in the Water' with a live band, the concert included solo songs from each school as well as readings and poems on the theme of freedom.

Kate Barrett from Portsmouth Music Hub, who conducted the choir, said "It is so important for children to understand and respect the freedoms they enjoy - freedom of choice, freedom of belief, freedom to be themselves - but also to know that with freedom comes responsibility. Learning the words to these songs, and a little about the history behind them, has enabled us all to understand more about our freedoms and how hard people have fought for them throughout history."