Parents pray as their young musicians play

Monday 15th December 2008, 2:29PM GMT.

The Saxophone Ensemble performs at Saturday’s open morning at the Grammar School. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0689521)

ALMOST 700 young musicians took to the stage for the Guernsey Music Centre’s Christmas open morning at the Grammar School.

Head of the Schools’ Music Service Mervyn Grand said that more than 800 pupils attended centre sessions each Saturday morning and the weekend’s open day was a fantastic opportunity for young people of all ages to perform together.

‘It’s a very informal event designed for the younger ones to perform in a fun atmosphere in front of family and friends,’ he said.

The session began with the junior string and wind band at 9 and finished with the percussion ensemble and jazz youth orchestra just before 1pm. There were also performances from the primary choir, cello and brass ensembles. ‘We combined many of the groups to give them a chance to perform together,’ said Mr Grand.

The centre, which has been established for more than 30 years, brings pupils together from schools around the island. Ages range from six to 18.

To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.

View more: Music news, Young People news, Youth news.

1
Paul

December 15, 2008 at 7:43 pm

RE.Music centre
I was under the impression that the music centre is funded differently to the music service. The Music centre is run on saturdays for all island children to be involved in music making I know parents contibute £50 a year’subs’ Friends of the music centre work to provide many thousands of pounds per annum to also help subsidise the centre, I am not sure how much the states contribute to the Saturday centre. What quite rightly is under review is the Music Service which gives instrument tuition to a lucky few, this tuition would add up to several thousand pounds per child. The argument from some is why when Music is already in the school curriculum and schools are already giving pupils the opportunity to be part of choirs,orchestras etc should individual children be given, what is essentially private lessons, and paid for by the taxpayer. If there is money for this why not individual drama or dance lessons or sport etc etc. I personally cannot see why individual private lessons for Music instrument playing should be given priority over any other of the Arts or Sports or perhaps more importantly Nursery education or the rebuilding of worn out schools.

Report abuse