A combined College Choir and Choral Society of 200 combined in harmonious pleasure with a crowd of 2000 to celebrate 25 years of ECCO Pops on the last Saturday of term. This was a spectacular
version of the ever-popular annual summer concert, held this year, Proms-in-the-Park style, on the playing fields which slope gently down from the Junior School. The evening opened with the rousing O Fortuna from Carmina Burana and ended with the traditional Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory, but this year to the accompaniment of fifteen explosive minutes of fireworks. If you missed them (and who in south London could have?), they were choreographed by the same company that lit up the farewell to Hong Kong. The whole programme was masterminded and conducted by Director of Music, Tim Johnson, together with the Eltham College Community Orchestra (ECCO) Committee and the Development Office team. Special guests included former Directors of Music, regular guest conductors and the man who began it all, Mr Nicholas Robinson, now Headmaster of King’s College Choir School.
The format has proved popular ever since with every year featured performances by our top musicians. This year Harry Penny played the rondo from Mozart’s clarinet concerto in A and Richard
Sands’ composition, New Horizons. Harry has a place at the Royal College of Music and will soon be appearing on BBC’s Classical Star competition. The major change over the years has been the increasing proportion of pupils and former pupils who make up the orchestra – a reflection of the growing standards of music at Eltham College. To reflect these standards and the prestige of the occasion, our usual compere, Mr Ben Pollard, was joined by Sara Mohr-Pietsch form the Radio 3 Breakfast Show.