Music schools in community for students

THE Ministry of Community Development Culture and the Arts’ will host the Music Schools in the Community programme from July 10 and will continue for five weeks. The programme provides formal musical training to students.

The music schools will be conducted at at five locations – in the north at Desperadoes Youth Orchestra, Port of Spain –pan; SWAHA Hindu College, Sangre Grande –tabla and harmonium; and Pan Jammers, Upper Santa Cruz –pan, woodwind and brass instruments. In south the venues are at Siparia Deltones, Railway Road, Siparia –pan, and at Golden Hands, San Fernando –pan, woodwind and brass instruments.

The Music Schools in the Community programme, first titled Music Schools in the Panyard, was launched in June 2012 in five panyards in communities, however, in 2013, the programme was re-branded Music Schools in the Community and extended to other community spaces.

Since its launch, over 1,700 students have participated in the programme which has as its focus on music literacy and instrument performance, said a media release. Students are also given the opportunity to participate in the Royal School of Music Theory examinations and in 2017 of the 24 students sponsored to write the Grade 1 Examination; 23 passed, with 19 obtaining distinctions.

In 2017, to end the programme and expose the students’ talents, the Dream Big concert was held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (Napa). Each school showcased individual pieces and with the final performance of the night as a joint orchestra under the direction of Akua Leith, musical director of the National Steel Symphony Orchestra. Dream Big 2017 was an outstanding success.

In 2018, the programme, focuses on students 12 to 18 years and has been re-designed to include a scholarship programme which gives students an opportunity to further develop their skills in a community-based music school, an internship programme with the National Steel Symphony Orchestra (NSSO) and the National Philharmonic Orchestra (NPO) and a capacity building programme aimed at developing the management capability of cultural and artistic community organisations and individuals.

Music Schools in the Community is focused on teaching, developing and enhancing instrument performance skills, theoretical knowledge and character development training while providing opportunities for participants to increase their personal, socially-useful and even commercially viable talent.

The goal is to discover and develop the nascent talent that exists in communities and provide opportunities to make their talents sustainable.

For more info: cdca.gov.tt, Facebook or call 225-4024 ext.4004