We all had a brilliant time performing at Summer Vibez 2019 this year – 31 singers took to the stage to perform a wide variety of popular music complete with lead singers, backing vocals, a capella harmonies and two big group songs.

Our groups songs included Revolting Children by Tim Minchin and Blinded by Your Grace, Pt 2. by Stormzy. Revolting Children was performed with fully choreographed dance moves (thanks to the amazing Lilly Reeves) and finished with a throng of paper planes launched into the audience – the children were highly entertained at my opening the show dressed as Mrs Trunchbull with a plank of wood in hand!

All students have worked desperately hard leading up to the concert, not just to learn their own solo and the group songs, but everyone was also asked to deliver backing vocals harmonies for someone else as well – this meant LOTS of stage time for all of the performers, getting up to sing at least 4 times each throughout the evening – and in some cases, the live show is the very first time the singers have all sang together, developing musicianship and harmony skills for other performances and session work.

The primary purpose of our summer concert is to showcase new talent and to allow newer singers to get on stage and perform. Some of these singers are on stage for the first time, others are there to improve their confidence or overcome anxiety, some are singing for fun whereas others dream of a career on the stage and are taking steps towards their future goals.

The audience this year was bigger than ever so the atmosphere was absolutely electric. The generous support from all those in the crowd allowed our singers to get up with confidence knowing they would be unequivocally encouraged by a magnitude of cheers and applause. Not every song was perfect, not every note was correct and not everything ran smoothly all the time – but this is a natural and real part of live performance and our fantastic audience were there without fail every time to really make everyone feel very loved.

One of my favourite things about these showcase performances is watching how these  students overcome so much to be there – working on their own respective obstacles: rhythm, pitch, articulation, performance skills, emotion, song delivery, confidence, song meaning, trying out new genres for the first time, getting the riff right, hitting the high note, remembering the lyrics (especially the ones always forgotten in practice!) the evening presented singers of all different levels and abilities, working together to really boost each other and put on an amazing show. I literally can’t describe how proud I feel of everyone who sang, for getting through each of their respective hurdles and really delivering their best on the night, no matter what happened!

Our second reason for the concert is to raise money for charity – and our chosen charity this year is Playlist for Life who create music playlists for dementia patients, to help trigger flashback memories.

I’m thrilled to announce that together we have managed to raise a whopping £780.03 for Playlist for Life.

Furthermore, an additional £80 was collected by the Ukulymes in the raffle for the beautiful handcrafted Ukulele. This money will be donated to Dementia UK  bringing our overall charitable total raised at Summer Vibez 2019 to a massive £860.03!!

A really huge thank you to everyone for your generosity, both performing and volunteering on the night and to the wonderful audience for buying tickets to attend, buying programmes, refreshments and participating in the raffles. Thanks as well for all your lovely donations of raffle prizes, money and cakes! I am always so humbled by your support, feedback and generosity in helping to get these crazy ideas off the ground and making them a success – with such amazing students and super supporters we are able to achieve so much together – so, as always, thank you all for being totally utterly splendid!

Love Kate x