No divine intervention needed for Barnham ‘Saints’

TALENTED young musicians from a Barnham school have something to sing about this month after they were selected to perform at a prestigious national music festival.

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd May 2013, 16:00 BST

Students from the St Philip Howard Catholic High School’s band, the Swingin’ Saints, have been selected from thousands of other entries to take part in the Music for Youth festival, in Birmingham, in July.

The band, made up of 19 students aged between 13 and 18, specialise in upbeat swing tunes which had competition judges tapping their feet with delight during a successful preliminary regional heat.

They will be performing on the final section of the five-day long celebration of some of the UK’s top, up-and-coming young musicians, with sixth-form students Alice McIlwraith, Harry Henshaw and Tegwen Elliott, accompanied by pianist Lucy Thraves – who is set to study music at Christ Church College, Oxford, in September – leading the group. The school’s head of music Rita Goodman praised all the band for their efforts.