The Pamoja Hall really came into its own on Friday 18 March with a spectacular Choral Concert performed to a full house.

The first half of the evening was a perfectly balanced programme of interesting and varied pieces. A choral arrangement of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess provided an uplifting and amusing opening by the Sennocke Consort, with an outstanding solo performance from Zoe Bailey.

There followed a number of high quality solo performers selected from the recent Gerald Finley Lieder masterclass. Oliver Clarke’s ‘Gute Nacht’ by Schubert was confident and engaging. In Mozart’s ‘Sull’aria’ there was great rapport between the two lively sopranos, Heather Catchpole and Morwenna Kotz. Tom Triffit’s debonair ‘The Vagabond’ by Vaughan Williams was professionally accompanied, as ever, by Jacob Rainbow.

The Chamber Choir only gets better and better! The students clearly love singing under their conductor, Sam Gladstone. Howard Goodall’s ‘Love Divine’ was a real tear-jerker with beautiful ensemble and sustained legato singing, contrasted with Mike Brewer’s challenging and extrovert arrangement of the highly rhythmic Nigerian song ‘O Re Mi’. Accompanists were Natalie Chau (piano) and Chris Ying (djembe).

After a shoulder-jostling interval in the Foyer Bar we were treated to a truly outstanding performance of Mozart’s monumental Requiem Mass in D Minor by the combined forces of the Choral Society and Parents’ Choir, numbering over 160 singers. The choir’s enthusiasm was highly contagious and the Chamber Orchestra, led by Elspeth Newey, provided an equally dynamic, sensitive and energetic accompaniment. Dramatic contrasts, flawless ensemble in the fugal sections, moments of sublime beauty and thorough commitment from each and every musician made this a performance to remember. The four soloists were Julietta Demetriades and Helen Walker (singing teachers at Sevenoaks School), Paul Smy (an Old Sennockian) and Nick Morris. They were joined in the Tuba Mirum by Alice Kinloch’s tremendous trombone solo. Sam Gladstone, conducting, was deservedly given particular applause by the choir and of course by the hugely impressed audience.

All in all this was an evening worthy of a top-class concert hall – and that is exactly what the Pamoja Hall is. The quality of the musicianship was such that the audience had to remind itself constantly that this was a school, and not a professional performance.

Debbie McMenamin