Trust News

Hosted only two weeks into the new term, the music department’s Jazz Reunion Concert was an evening of wonderful music, easy laughter and the exchange of many heartfelt words. Over the course of the night, we got to hear an array of incredible solos and breath-taking improvisations, with tunes both familiar and fresh filling the school hall. The evening came in the wake of a minor disturbance in the usual SJL musical calendar (the must-not-be-named pandemic of 2020), and – hence its title – featured many past students, who returned both to support the younger band members, but also to finally perform their ‘swan songs’, which they were robbed of by the various lockdowns of the last 18 months. Yet despite the shadow that COVID might have cast over the evening, we also got to hear about some of the positives that have come out of these strange times. For example, when SJL first closed last year, Bob Power – Jazz Band’s much-loved conductor and chief arranger – worked with the leavers over Zoom, in the hope that he could keep music alive for them over lockdown. Some time on, the group still calls almost weekly, a testament both to Bob’s incredible generosity and dedication to the school, but also to the passion of our students and the power of music in the recent difficulties we’ve all faced. In this way, the evening offered us all an opportunity to celebrate our current SJL students, as well as those of time gone by, and also pay tribute to Bob, a legendary trailblazer in SJL music history. This was especially poignant as the Jazz Reunion Concert was Bob’s last after 40 years of teaching at SJL, as well as the school’s 30^th – many a student, teacher and parent left the hall smiling but a tad teary-eyed! Huge congratulations as well as a massive thank you to the audience and everyone involved in the concert, which came together brilliantly thanks to the help, support and collaboration of all.

Katie, Year 13