Shrewsbury Riverside Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary During a Magical Evening of Music and Community at the Last Night of the Proms.

Shrewsbury Riverside Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary During a Magical Evening of Music and Community at the Last Night of the Proms. 

The Last Night of the Proms: Over 125 Years of Tradition and Celebration

On the 10th of August, 1895, the first Proms concert was held at the Queen’s Hall in London, England. The concert was orchestrated by building manager Robert Newman, with the intention of making musical performances more appealing to wider audiences. The aim was to offer a blend of popular and classical musical programmes, making the musical experience more accessible overall. The Last Night of the Proms concludes the historical eight-week concert season and has been celebrated at Shrewsbury Riverside for the last 20 years. 

This year’s concert marks the 20th anniversary of Shrewsbury Riverside, providing an opportunity for the community to celebrate and recognize the music department’s talents. Furthermore, it serves as an opportunity for both Shrewsbury Riverside and City Campus to unite as one, with support from Shrewsbury UK. 

A Vibrant Evening of Classical and Contemporary Musical Performances

The entire Shrewsbury family came together on Wednesday, 1st November, to celebrate Shrewsbury Riverside’s 20th anniversary at this year’s Last Night of the Proms event. 

Student choirs from both Riverside and City campuses, student rock bands, staff musicians and professional guest musicians are just a few of the impressive talents that performed at the event. Students from Y3 all the way up to Y13 performed at the event. 

Guests were greeted with whimsical string quartet sounds as they walked down the red carpet towards Morris Forum for photos and refreshments. 

As guests moved from socialising at Morris Forum to Memorial Hall for the show, the Junior Brass Ensemble played an upbeat fanfare specially composed by Chris Papps, Director of Music. Upon arrival at the concert hall, a Thai musical ensemble greeted guests in the foyer as they moved to take their seats for the performances. 

The concert began with Junior Chamber Choir performances, which featured students from both Shrewsbury Riverside and City campuses. After their elegant singing of the “King’s Anthem,” the choir yielded a proud performance of “Why We Sing.” 

Following the Junior Chamber Choir performance, the Prom Strings Orchestra played selections from “St. Paul’s Suite,” after which, the Riverside Strings were accompanied by the KS3 Choir for Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus.” 

The Shrewsbury UK Chapel Choir then performed, accompanied by the Shrewsbury UK Brass ensemble, broadcasted via pre-recorded video on the stage-left LED screen. The act was followed by performances from both the Wind Band and the Harmonix ensemble, before giving way to the full Prom Orchestra performances. The orchestra performed two original pieces composed by Tim, a current student, and Tay Sirisook, an alumni. Tim’s piece was composed specially for the event, and it was inspired by the theme of “reflection.”

“I thought it was an interesting theme to write for, especially given that I was writing for this event, which celebrates 20 years of Shrewsbury excellence,” said Tim. “I chose to split my piece into three sections: past, present and future for this reason.”

There was a brief intermission for the Shrewsbury Percussion Ensemble to perform, after which the orchestral pieces resumed. The programme concluded with a mesmerising combined choral and orchestral performance of Benjamin Britten’s ‘God Save the King.’ 

Following the final acts of the programme, guests moved outside for a meal catered by British Bangkok Club, accompanied by outdoor musical performances. Both Junior and Senior bands took the stage, performing a variety of jazz and rock renditions of contemporary pieces. Bands played fun tunes such as “Chasing Cars,” “Zombie” and “Love Story.” The evening ended with a magical fireworks display over the Chao Phraya River, which was accompanied by an exciting EDM musical composition created by Ponthakorn (Jeffie) Eiamkriengkrai. 

Shrewsbury Riverside Commemorates 20 Years as an Institution of Academic Excellence and Community Building

Shrewsbury School UK was founded almost 500 years ago, and it is one of the Great Nine schools in England. Its extension to Bangkok 20 years ago with the founding of Shrewsbury Riverside brought this greatness to Thailand. Over the last two decades, the school has built a tight-knit family of students, teachers, parents and alumni. 

The theme of this year’s Last Night of the Proms is the celebration of Shrewsbury Riverside’s 20th anniversary as an institution and the commemoration of the large community it has built over time. Throughout human history, music has been used to unite people, and this tradition is carried forward at Shrewsbury Riverside through their celebration of the historic Last Night of the Proms. This year, the night served as an opportunity to celebrate the 20 years of accomplishments of our renowned music department, with performances by Shrewsbury’s well-trained staff musicians and the talented student musicians they have helped teach. 

“My time at Shrewsbury has been incredibly important in developing my skills as a musician,” said Tim. “I have been given so many opportunities to perform, to compose, to learn, to play in ensembles and altogether develop into a well-rounded musician, and I am very thankful for the time I have spent engaging with music at this school." 

Since its founding, Shrewsbury Riverside has seen approximately 2,100 graduates move on to become leaders in the world. Alumni have gone on to become medical professionals, engineers, bankers, architects, artists, successful musicians and much more. Many of Riverside’s beloved alumni return for the Last Night of the Proms to celebrate with the Shrewsbury family once more. 

Riverside Campus: Ever-Changing and Evolving

Since its original construction in 2003, Shrewsbury Riverside has undergone frequent renovations to stay up-to-date as a facility and provide students with a well-rounded, high quality education. Shrewsbury Riverside focuses on maintaining purpose-built facilities that are designed for specific age groups to support the provision of the utmost quality of education. 

Recent updates to Riverside educational facilities include the building of the Sir David Lees Innovation Centre, which expands the mathematics, science, innovation, robotics and computer science fields at Riverside. Additionally, the building is home to a new centre for students’ higher education needs - the Stephen Holroyd Sixth Floor Commons. The commons provides students with support and counselling in their post-graduate endeavours, as well as ample study spaces for upper senior students to focus on their academics. Bob Holmes, architect of Shrewsbury Riverside, oversaw the renovations, as he has done with each improvement made in the last 20 years. 

For 20 years, Shrewsbury Riverside has been dedicated to academic excellence and creating an environment for students to flourish in all facets. This year’s Last Night of the Proms allowed for the celebration of this dedication and the successes it has yielded, surely creating a night to remember for decades to come. If the heart is right, all is well - and all is quite well at Shrewsbury Riverside.