News ‘Tis the Season to be Colly! 07.12.2018

St Mary’s Parish Church, on the Causeway in Horsham, and Fr. David Bouskill hosted the Collyer’s annual Christmas Concert. The congregation enjoyed an evening of festive music and readings by students and staff.

The evening began with Fr. David Bouskill’s welcome and prayer, followed by a rousing performance of ‘O’ Little Town of Bethlehem’ (Phillips Brooks).

After a reading by Ciarran Buckley (Luke: 2:1-7), the congregation enjoyed the college choir’s performance of ‘This Little Babe’ (Benjamin Britton) and everyone joined together to sing ‘Away in a Manger’. Nadia Henning then read Luke: 2: 8-4) and the choir, led by Lydia Palmer, performed ‘Winter Wonderland’ (Felix Bernard), with the congregation accompanying on ‘While Shepherds Watched their Flocks’ (Nahum Tate).

Rebecca Inglis-Taylor then read Titus 3:4-7 and the congregation then enjoyed Ingrid Tiba and Luca Cavallo’s performance of ‘Silent Night’ (Joseph Mohr) and Vila Zhang and Matthew Luk’s piano and cello duet ‘Kol Nidrei’ (Max Bruch).

As the evening drew to a close, Collyer’s Principal Sally Bromley gave a reading of Christina Rossetti’s ‘Christmas Eve’; the congregation were then invited to sing ‘I Saw Three Ships’ (William Sandys). The Blessing was then read by Fr. David Bouskill.

Collyer’s Principal, Sally Bromley said: “The Christmas concert is a Collyer’s tradition not to be missed, so huge thanks to Fr. David Bouskill and all at St Mary’s for hosting us again this year. I was immensely proud of the students’ performances. We are so lucky to have such talented young people at Collyer’s!”

The Collyer’s choir, with piano accompaniment from Kathryn Rasanayagam, featured: Zoe Armstrong, Nina Dallyn, Caitlin Faroo, Isabelle Harris, Hannah Hart; Lydia Palmer (Choir Leader); Rebecca Inglis-Taylor, Pauline Wang and Morton Woodburn. The church organ was played by Alexander Newton, with live sound recording from Dan Page (Head of Music), Marcus Bell (Performing Arts Technician), Josh Van Den Dolder, Kane O’Brien and Izzy Hooker. Musical Director was Stephen Brundish (Music Teacher and Head of Extra-curricular Music).

Other stars on the night included Collyer’s Linda MacLeman and Rachel Gander, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the event possible. Members of the RCU (Collyer’s student council) collected for Cancer Research UK, as part of this Christmas’ RAG charity campaign.