As part of this year’s Festival of Music, Old Ipswichians were welcomed back to the school to play for guests in Great School on Sunday evening at the OI Gala Concert. Following the success of a similar event in 2021, the aim of the evening was to bring together former school musicians with current ones, to put together a concert for the public spanning a number of different styles of music.

The event was curated by OI Ed Dewson, working with Mrs Steensma, the school’s Director of Music. The musicians involved spent the whole day rehearsing together before the evening concert. There was also a delicious lunch provided for the Old Ipswichians, so they could catch up with each other and chat about their school days here. The event included classical music played by the Gala Orchestra, an choral performance of Carmina Burana, an a cappella version of the Muppet Show theme from this year’s Speech Day guest speaker Ben Parry and his two daughters Midge and Freya, and a finale of I Can See Clearly Now with the Gala Band and the choir reuniting everyone for a final time, to much applause.

Look out for more music events later in the year.