the wellington college year book 2010/2011
67
George Turley
playing Malvolio,
in Twelfth Night,
during the Artsfest
We were delighted to have virtuoso
performances by ows Amy Tress, Thomas
Humphreys and Anton Crayton, along with
a wonderful performance by accomplished
singer, pianist and songwriter Rae Evans
who is also one of our esteemed singing
teachers. There were Chapel recitals galore
with Sean Farrell, Dylan Quinlivan-Brewer
and Simon Williamson.
The inaugural
Haldane Organ Competition was presided
over by internationally acclaimed organist
and teacher Ann Elise Smoot who presented
prizes in both Junior and Senior categories.
The extraordinarily talented Ben Montague
played two concerts in the Theatre. Having
recently been on tour where Ben played
the O2 Academy Sheffield and O2 Academy
Islington, Ben also supported guitar supremo
Joe Bonnamassa (Black Country Communion)
and recently found himself in the Rock God
stratosphere, playing alongside Nick Mason
from Pink Floyd and Roger Daltrey from The
Who, as part of racing superstar Eddie Jordan’s
all-star band at Silverstone? Ben played to
!
appreciative audiences who also bought his
cds by the dozen. It was wonderful to see
Ben duetting with the talented Hermione
Hedges-Robinson, playing a version of No
Republic’s Apologise to rapturous applause.
Jonathan Shotton, who holds the title of
Britain’s number one magician, performed an
array of tricks which left everyone befuddled,
mesmerised and wanting more?!
The Festival Circus wowed with an array
of tightrope walking, juggling, clowning and
wonderful, traditional circus entertainment.
With her star well and truly in the firmament
Shappi Khorsandi is one of the uk’s fastest
rising female stand-ups and is side-splittingly
funny. Shappi played a gig in two parts which
was brilliantly sharp, observational and full of
audience participation? Shappi performed
!
to an audience of over seven hundred pupils,
parents and public. A definite high point for
our ArtsFest.
Twelfth Night, performed by and on Swan
Lake, was testament to the sheer acting
talent of our pupils. The setting was truly
unique and reflected the wonderful vision and
passion of Drama stalwart Hugh Macgregor
and the musicianship of Sean Farrell, whose
score for the play worked beautifully in
tandem. The mocking of Malvolio, romancing
of Orsino and wickedness of Sir Toby will live
long in the minds of all who witnessed this
truly sublime production.
The four days played out with a ‘bang’.
London Irish mascot band, Fanfair are on the
verge of hitting the big time?! In The Saturdays
mould, Fanfair played four songs to a more than
appreciative and packed audience in Princes’
Quad. Pupils danced, cheered and left feeling
sated after our best Arts Festival to date.
Mrs Lunnon and I cannot thank everyone
enough for making this year’s Wellington
College Arts Festival so incredible and a foretaste of what is possible for the arts to achieve
in subsequent years. However, it’s only right
that we mention our festival director Hilary
Davan-Wetton, for his vision in making this
a truly memorable arts event, along with
our trouper of an Events Manager, Yvonne
Danson and an absolutely brilliant Fringe team
that were the glue that held the whole show
together, along with every member of staff
that supervised, ran workshops and endeavoured to get involved. Most of all, we would
like to thank Wellington pupils, who made the
four days a huge success. Well done to all?!