LEYTON SIXTH FORM COLLEGE

Students at the Royal College of Music

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Music students have recently been seeing the benefits of both visiting other venues to hear professional performances and having professional musicians visit them at the College.

It was a busy few weeks before the Christmas break with some A Level Music students visiting the Royal College of Music, and BTEC Extended Diploma in Music students visiting a local community music initiative to perform, as well as having the opportunity to work with hip-hop artist and producer Cynikal at the College.

The Royal College of Music event combined a short look around some of the College’s facilities with a concert with the New Perspectives ensemble. The centrepiece of the concert was a concerto performance by violinist Mari Poll, which besides impressing the strings players in the group, managed to provide everyone with a real sense of what a professional performance can look like on stage. This followed another event, when A Level students took part in a seminar with members of the London Symphony Orchestra and heard them play and discuss some of the set-works in their syllabus.

Cynikal’s visit included both performances with members of the Street Orchestra and a seminar-type session where he was able to offer direct advice about how to find your feet in the music industry and deal with prospective clients such as record companies, promoters, and radio stations. Students were also able to ask about music at university and music colleges, and everyone picked up some valuable advice to put into practice in their own performance work.

The latest opportunity to do this outside of the educational environment came with two performances as part of a community music programme called ‘Tomorrow’s Musicians’. The College has enjoyed a long-running association with the initiative which aims at supporting young musicians and providing a platform for some of their first performances, and musicians and vocalists from the course were able to perform reggae and RnB covers to a typically varied audience.

Forthcoming performance events for students include ‘Hear us Out’ on Thursday 12 January and an A Level Musicians’ recital on Tuesday 28 February. Further details can be found here