Our 20th birthday concert

Sue Simpson writes...

Some of the musicians after the concert

In October, we presented a special concert to celebrate the Trust's first twenty years, and for the first time we enjoyed music not only from four of our present youngsters but also from four from the past who are now working as professional musicians.

We were very grateful to Sarah Moule, Chris Adams, Karen Hobbs (nee Fotherby) and Nadine Andre for taking time out of their busy lives to join us. Especial thanks were due to Nadine who also accompanied Camilla, Charlie and Abigail in the first part of the programme.

The performers were:
 
 
 		 Sarah Moule (soprano)
Christopher Adams (bass-baritone)
Karen Hobbs (clarinet)
Nadine André (piano)		 Camilla ('cello and recorder)
Abigail (flute and saxophone)
Charlotte (soprano)
Charlie (violin)

The first half featured two versatile young musicians - Abigail on both flute (Faure's Fantasie) and saxophone (Jules Demersseman's Fantaisie sur un theme original), and Camilla on 'cello (the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov's Sonata in G minor) and recorder (Handel's Sonata No.3 in C). Charlotte, who has participated in two of our opera courses, came back from Southampton University to delight us with songs by Bach, Brahms and Madeleine Dring, accompanied by Angela Barker, and Charlie played the first movement of Brahms's Sonata in D Minor for violin. All four demonstrated considerable talent and musicality, and a professional approach to their performance.

Alexia-Jane cuts our 20th birthday cake

After the interval, during which a 20th birthday cake was cut by our youngest 'young musician', 'cellist Alexia-Jane, we were spirited off to France by Sarah Moule, who charmed with songs by Debussy and Poulenc, and Nadine Andre, with Ravel's Jeux d'eau; those of us who knew Robert Bouffler will remember this as a particular favourite, featuring regularly in his concerts. Then it was off to Spain with Karen with some of Moskowski's spirited dances, arranged for clarinet and piano, before Chris brought us back to England with Vaughan Williams' evocative 'Songs of Travel'.

Sarah, Karen and Nadine brought a wonderful concert to a close with a sensitive performance of Schubert's 'Shepherd on the Rock'. As always, the concert was recorded by David Birt, the Trust's first Chairman, and all the participating musicians received CDs of the concert - a valuable tool for those still on the learning curve.

Oxted's United Reformed Church has become our favoured venue for concerts, and the large audience gathered for this special event was most appreciative of the musical talent of both older and younger singers and players. This proved to be a really successful format which I'm sure will be repeated, so if there are any of our past beneficiaries who would like to join us for future concerts we'd be delighted to hear from you!

You can see all of the photos from this concert here.

We are glad to retain contact with past beneficiaries and their families and with others who are interested in our work through the Friends scheme. Do please think about becoming a Friend if you have not done so already; it's only £15 a year and as you can see our income is put to very good use.