Tuition for promising musicians

Press, 4 May 1988, Page 22

Tuition for promising musicians

This year’s New Zealand secondary schools’ orchestral course in Christchurch will be held next week at Teachers’ College. The course, from May 9 to 14, will provide tuition for promising young musicians. The school course was instituted in 1960 by the then-national adviser for music in schools, Bill Walden-Mills, as part of his policy of developing instrumental music. Courses are held each year in Christchurch, in May, and at Auckland,

in August. Secondary school pupils who have attained the required musical standard may attend. Each course is funded by a grant from the Education Department. Participants pay a small registration fee. Since 1985 the Education Department’s team of music teachers in. Christchurch has run the May course. The six-day courses finish with a public concert. This year’s conductor for the final Christchurch concert will be the well-known conductor

and composer, William Southgate, of Wellington. He was in Christchurch most recently to conduct his new symphony, written as part of the Finn-ish-New Zealand cultural exchange. The assistant conductor is Paul Mayhew. Mayhew conducted the course symphonic wind band items last year. He is the director of Continuum, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music ensemble, and is principal horn in the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

The young soloists for the course are both from Christchurch. James Bush is a sixth form pupil at Christchurch Boys’ High School. James, a cellist, a member of the Christchurch Youth Orchestra, was a member of the 1987 National Youth Orchestra, and recently gained admission to the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Simon Rogers is in the seventh form at Burnside High School. He is principal cello in the Christchurch Youth Orchestra,

was a member of the 1987 National Youth Orchestra, and recently gained a position in the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In the programme for the final concert on May 14 in the Teachers’ College auditorium are Rimmer’s “Meeting Place,” Handel’s “Sonata for Two Cellos and Strings,” Tchaikovsky’s “Marche Slave,” Greig’s “Funeral March for Concert Band,” Saint-Saens’s “Symphony No. 2,” and Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Nos 2 and 4.”