(Post made at 1950 UK time on 29 Dec 2017 in a personal capacity. Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).
Over the last few days I have really enjoyed listening to some wonderful festive music, some of which also brought back very fond memories!
I remember really enjoying playing flute in a performance of Vivaldi's Gloria (featured in the first video below), and also Bach's Brandenberg No 1 (featured as one of the pieces in the 2nd video below) aged 11 with my school orchestra! (See note * below)
I and another first former (year 7 in modern parlance), both about grade 3 or 4 standard, played what we could of these works, and the two sixth formers (year 12 or 13) played it all. We were both in awe of their skill, and wanted to play like them, and it was a great privilege to be in the group of performers and to be able to hear all the wonderful playing and singing going on around us.
Taking part in music is a great joy and I believe it is very important (see here for just a few reasons) to make this accessible to as many children as possible. (NB I am no way implying that this should be limited to classical music)
Note *: at the time the school was called Newcastle High School, based in Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire. It is now called Newcastle Under Lyme School, having been formed from merging Newcastle High School (my old school, although I was only there for a term) and the Orme Girls' School.
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