Junior Conservatoire Students
Three of our students have pretty much made up their minds that they would like to work in the Music Profession. There is plenty of advice out there for the aspiring professional musician, but the business of gaining enough of the right kind of experience is always a challenge. Opportunities to play and learn together regularly are vital for the development of musical personality, but finding other likeminded students of comparable age and ability is not easy.
For many years the London conservatoires have offered Junior departments, operating each Saturday and available for top students living locally. The standard is as one might expect extremely high and places much coveted. I am delighted to report that both Isabelle Draper (Trumpet) and Tom Wu (Tuba) have now started at Junior Guildhall (Izzy proudly holding a Brass Scholarship) and Freya Rhodes (Harp) at the Royal College of Music's Junior Department. For them the days are long: waking up early, travelling to London to start at 8.30am, wrapping up at around 4pm before the long journey back. They pack a wide variety of ensembles, one-to-one tuition, concerts and recitals into their day, alongside the usual musicianship classes of harmony, composition, theory and aural.
Being a member of Junior Conservatoire is quite a commitment for our three musicians: not only is every weekend dominated by their London visit, but they also miss out on normal Saturday school so have to catch up both lessons and preps. Of course we shouldn't forget that they may also need a bit of down time on Sundays to recover before the rigours of another full school week!
But the benefits are huge. Such places give students a chance to realise if being an active professional is really for them; they meet lifelong friends and future colleagues. A place can be an entrée into Conservatoire at undergraduate level and so is a really great start to their professional career. We are proud of our three musicians, who are fine ambassadors for College and its Music.
By PMSt
