Formidable! Kingsland wows Otsailan!!

Kingsland Primary School Choir and their Musical Director, Mrs Rogers (assisted by Mr Rogers), were an enormous hit with the visiting choir Otsailan, a ladies' Basque choir from Peebles' "twin town" Hendaye in south-west France.

Headteacher, Mrs Wilson, welcomed the visitors in fluent French and the Musical Director, Dina Licht, replied in English.  Bruce Macalister, Chairman of the Peebles-Hendaye Twinning Association, also welcomed the visitors and gave some background information about the work of the Twinning Association.

MSP Jeremy Purvis (that's the larger "pupil" in the centre of the picture who is not in school uniform) also attended the event and was very popular with the pupils.  They even managed to persuade him to try to arrange for their choir to sing at the Scottish Parliament.  Watch this space!

Both choirs sang to each other and then had some fun by mixing and singing together.  Dina Licht led a 4-part round of "Frère Jacques".  Click here to listen to "Frère Jacques".  The finale was a rousing joint performance of "Highland Cathedral" which almost raised the roof. (You can listen to "Highland Cathedral" in the Eastgate Concert report below).

The pupils of the Kingsland Choir were presented with small leather purses by Otsailan and a commemorative bookmark by the Twinning Association.

Considering that this was just the "warm-up" for the joint concert at the Eastgate Theatre on Sunday 2 September, we could look forward to a fantastic evening of choral singing and international co-operation and this was certainly the case! (see the report further down)

Otsailan and the Twinning Association would like to thank Mrs Wilson and her staff for such wonderful hospitality.  The also wish to congratulate the pupils in the choir who were a credit to their school, their town and indeed to Scotland!  Well done!

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