A night with the stars: Wellington’s inaugural joint scholars’ concert

Last Thursday, Wellington College International Shanghai enjoyed its first joint arts scholars’ concert. The event was a chance for a small number of our music, drama, dance and musical theatre scholars to display their abilities in a professional theatre environment, supported by full lighting and sound. For the audience, the evening gave them the chance to see some of our higher performing pupils demonstrate their undeniable passion and talent as they delivered an extremely varied and exciting programme. They were treated to excerpts from the musicals ‘Wicked’ and the ‘Wedding Singer’ between classical, contemporary and jazz music items, together with three different forms of dance (classical ballet, contemporary and street dance), all topped off with a performance from the College’s jazz band. We were very privileged to be joined at the concert by Mr Simon Williamson, who is the Director of Arts at Wellington UK. Simon spent much of his time during the day giving masterclasses to our pupils and was extremely impressed by our scholars and the progress of the arts programme as a whole. Wellington’s scholarship programme has expanded rapidly over the last year and is designed to support the most talented and dedicated pupils in their pursuit of performance excellence within their disciplines. The purpose of the programme is not only to recognise individual talent, it is also to instil a greater sense of responsibility, since all scholars are expected to become ambassadors for their chosen discipline. As such, they are expected to set an example to other Wellington pupils by always maintaining a high level of dedication to their craft and by taking opportunities to increase awareness and interest in the arts wherever possible. Each of the artistic disciplines is now represented by a strong contingent of scholars, who will no doubt build on past and present successes to further improve the quality and reputation of artistic pursuits and performances at Wellington. We look forward to the next scholars’ concert in the Lent term and hope that even more of our school community will come and enjoy what promises to be another evening of entertainment and artistic excellence. Michael Larsen-Disney Director of Arts