King’s Week 2024 is officially over! A big thank you to all the performers, athletes, musicians and artists for their efforts as well as everyone else behind-the-scenes for making this spectacular week happen.
Music
King’s Week music kicked off, as ever, with ‘Thursday Night is Music Night’, which saw some wonderfully diverse performances from the Concert Band, the intimate sound of the Sinfonia string ensemble, ‘Acoustix’, the percussion group and the Jazz Combo. The evening’s entertainment didn’t stop there; ‘Jazz on a Summer Sunset’ raised the marquee roof on a beautiful evening with some superb singing and fun improv from the performers.
‘The Serenade’, in its new home of The Water Tower Garden, was simply magnificent. Members of the Crypt Choir, with additional 6a singers and joined by soloists, close harmony groups and instrumental ensembles performed an eclectic mix of secular music. Solo pieces from Joe Fuller and Annenora Benians were a delight, before the final piece of the evening, ‘On this Shining Night’, a Serenade classic, bought the evening to an end.
On Sunday evening, The Chamber Orchestra presented a programme of classical masterpieces by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, alongside some more contemporary works in ‘The Virtousi’
The ‘Gala Symphony Concert’, King’s Week’s finale, featured the Trumpet Concerto by Hummell, Saint-Saëns’ Allegro Appassionato for cello and orchestra, the contemporary Australian composer Hindson’s House Music for flute and orchestra and the opening movement from Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. After the interval, the Symphony Orchestra brought King’s Week to a rapturous close with a full performance of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, ‘From the New World’.
The King’s Week band, this year covering The Eagles, took to the stage in St Mary’s Hall to perform a variety of the band’s well-known hits, as well as some deeper cuts from their discography. St Mary’s Hall today, next stop, no doubt a stadium tour!
Drama & Dance
Drama and Dance took centre stage in The Malthouse across the week, with performances of ‘The Government Inspector’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Hay Fever’ and, of course, KiDaCo’s dance spectacular.
The Junior Play, ‘The Government Inspector’, transported us to an absurd provincial town where power and corruption is rife. An undercover government inspector is about to make a visit so officials must make a mad dash to cover their tracks.
The William Shakespeare classic, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, took on a wonderful new adaptation. Set against a backdrop of classic pop anthems, the play explored what it means to be young and in love and included typical Shakespearean verse alongside more contemporary scenes of song and dance. Stirling Hampton and Dylan Shearer as Romeo and Hector Hulme as Mercutio deserve special mentions for their performances.
‘Hay Fever’ followed the artistic and wealthy Bliss family as they welcome an array of characters into their home. Excellent set design, immersing the audience in the play, sharp dialogue, fun interactions and sparkling humour made for a truly memorable senior play.
KiDaCo featured over seventy pupils in a feast of dance styles inspired by film genres, ranging from musicals to psychological thrillers, from westerns to gangster movies. A wonderful farewell from our fabulous dance scholars and a joy to see the wealth of talent coming through the ranks.
Sport
Traditionally, the Saturday of King’s Week is Sports Day at Birley’s. The day was filled with some intense matches: from tennis to touch-rugby, golf to show jumping, fencing to a fiercely contested tug-of-war. Two great cricket matches against the Shepway Stragglers and a combination of teachers and students followed matches against Sevenoaks and Simon Langton in the preceding days. The inflatable gladiator ring encouraged some friendly competition, testing endurance, skill and balance in equal measure. The day was rounded off back at Green Court with the annual OKS fencing competition, pitting former pupils against current to determine the winner of the coveted sword and resulting in a 2-0 win to the OKS!
Speeches & Debates
The Removes lit up the incredible space in the Chapter House with a variety of inspiring speeches from the likes of Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Rudyard Kipling. James Townend’s reproduction of Charlie Chaplin’s final speech from The Great Dictator was a particular highlight.
In the Science Auditorium, academic talks throughout the week were diverse and interesting. Curtis Lee amazed us with the mechanics of taste and smell and how the two are intertwined. Lily Ross-Brown walked us through the different lenses used to capture Blanche Dubois’ character and how they trace to femininity, while Aiden Masiero introduced the audience to Euclidean Geometry with an animated slideshow. Meanwhile, Daniel Seo spoke about the science of time and space in relation to black holes and Oliver Dallas gave an amusing talk on how language affects plural endings.
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone for making King’s Week 2024 so special. See you again next year!
