PROGRAMME NOTES BERKSHIRE YOUNG MUSICIANS TRUST MASSED PRIMARY SCHOOL CHOIR Musical Director: Stage Director: Age range of performers:
Gil/ian Dibden Clare Young
8-11 years (singers) 14-18 years
(instrumentalists)
This performance is given by kind arrangement with josef Weinberger Ltd. THE RAGGED CHILD
DAVID NEILD
T
he Berkshire Young Musicians Trust delivers instrumental and vocal lessons to schools across Berkshire and is supported by all the new Unitary Authorities. Gillian Dibden, Head of Voice and Choral Music for the Trust, invited primary schools to come together for tonight's performance. The response was overwhelming and the group numbers 550 young singers who have enjoyed themselves tremendously putting together this excerpt from The Ragged Child. Accompanied by an ensemble of senior instrumental students from the Trust, they met last weekend to bring everything together. Their stage director, Clare Young, lives in Italy but her affection for this piece and the challenge of giving 550 children the opportunity to perform in the Royal Albert Hall was eno~gh to bring her back. The Ragged Child was first performed by Tiffin School, Kingston-upon-Thames in March 1986 and then subsequently by the National Youth Music Theatre at various festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival in August 1986. Clare Young and Gillian Dibden directed a very successful performance of the work with the Berkshire Junior Opera Group a few years ago at the Wilde Theatre. The plot of The Ragged Child deals with the poverty of children in London in the nineteenth-century and Lord Shaftesbury's efforts in Parliament to bring relief. Tonight's extract begins with the whole of London celebrating the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851.
lAN DAU FORTE YOUTH THEATRE, DERBY Musical Director: Age range of performers: NIGHTTRAIN
L
TanyCaffey 13-18 years TONYCOFFEY
andau Forte College is a City Technology College for eleven to eighteen-year-olds in the centre of Derby.
The staff of the college believe that the arts play a vital role in the education of young people and this is reflected both in the curriculum and the extra-curricular activities available to students. The youth theatre group devises original music drama which tackles issues that are important to young people. The group was formed in 1995 and has since been awarded three Outstanding Performance Awards at the National Festival of Music for Youth. Night Train was commissioned by The Prince's Trust to celebrate the opening of a youth centre in lronville. The youth centre is actually a railway carriage artistically decorated with graffiti. The full show lasts for over an hour and tells the story ofTrevor, a young man with some problems. In this excerpt the crew of the night train help Trevor find himself by introducing him to music. They give him a special gift and through music, Trevor's life changes for ever.
the group for the universal appeal of music, which can / have lost count of reach out even the number of ),oung to those who professional musldans, music cannot hear. teachers and Just plain lovers of music who over the years have The second pOinted to the influence piece they of the Schools Proms in the will perfonT, development of their love for and appreciation of music. is Amazing Raymond Gubbay Grace featuring soloist Vicky Jones. Both songs require the entire group to sign certain verses.
GREATER GWENT YOUTH BRASS BAND Musical Director: Age range of performers: GAUDETE I WILL FOLLOW HIM
ICKNIElD CHOIR & SIGNING CHOIR, lUTON, BEDFORDSHIRE Musical Director: Peter Auker Conductor: Bev Smith Signing Director: Suzanne Chapman Age range of performers: 11-16 years Soloist: Vicky lanes THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC AMAZING GRACE
BENNY ANDERSON & BjORN ULVAEUS TRAD, ARR PETER AUKER
I
Cknield High School, a mixed comprehensive school for eleven to sixteen-year-olds, has a very strong musical tradition. There are many groups which play in school and the local community, including a wind band, an orchestra, two choirs and a kabuki ensemble. The signing choir was formed about five years ago in order to help integrate pupils from Icknield's HearingImpaired Unit into the musical life of the school. Membership of both the choir and signing choir involves no audition and is open to anyone who is interested and currently there are about fifty members.
The visual element of the signing choir is an important factor in choosing music for any performance. Repertoire must feature music which can be enhanced by the inclusion of signing for the deaf. Tonight, the Choir will begin their programme with a cheerful rendition of the ABBA song Thank You for the Music. The message sums up the feelings of
PINE TREES OF THE APPIANWAY
Adrian Martan 12-21 years
TRAD 14TH CENTURY, ARR STEPHEN ROBERTS j PlANTE, F POURCEl, P MAURIAT, N GIMBEl, ARR GOFF RICHARDS RESPIGHI, ARR H SNElL
T
he Greater Gwent Youth Brass Band was formed as the Monmouthshire Youth Brass Band in the late 1950S and is now run by the Greater Gwent Music Support Service with the support of the Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent councils. In 1991 the band won the gold award at the Gower Music Festival in Valkenburg, Holland, and in 1992 received an Outstanding Performance Award at the National Festival of Music for Youth, an achievement that was repeated this year under their current conductor Adrian Morton. The band won the National Youth Brass Band title in 1994 and in 1999, and also won the European Youth Brass Band Championships in 1998. 1992 saw the band's last performance at the Schools Prom and the performers are delighted to be playing at the Albert Hall again this year. Stephen Roberts' arrangement of Gaudete opens this programme with vitality in his version of the fourteenth-century traditional song. I Will Follow Him is an arrangement from the film score of Sister Act and features the trombone section of the band. To conclude the programme the band will play the rousing finale from Respighi's Pines of Rome.