The masterclass this year was held once again on 24th February and as usual took place in the Music School at Talbot Heath School. It was open to young string, wind and keyboard players, but in fact this year most of the students were string players.

There were three sessions: one in the morning, one in the afternoon, when the tutors and students worked with a different group, and an informal evening concert for parents, teachers and members of the society.  19 students took part, all of whom had at least grade 6 on their instruments and good sight-reading abilities.  They were coached by three young professional musicians – Aleksander Szram, piano, Caroline Szram, cello and Lucy McIntyre, flute.

This year we extended the scheme to include  five ‘apprentice tutors’, all of whom were past masterclass students, and who are either in their gap year, or already at music college.  Aleks Szram, who has been tutor at all but one of the past masterclasses, emailed me to say:  ‘Caroline and I really enjoyed Sunday - it was much easier preparing the concert with all the apprentice tutors, and the standard of the students was very high. Looking forward to next year!’

A member of the society, who came during the day, watched some very young string players being coached by one of the apprentice tutors, who was playing the cello as part of the quartet.  He told me he was amazed how the group was transformed, in about ten minutes, from three relatively inexperienced individuals, to a cohesive, communicating group.  The young tutor had never coached before, so she too was learning a skill which will be invaluable to her in her future career. We have built up the masterclass from its early stages when we had just nine students – three piano trios – to its present form, taking into account feedback from the students themselves and the tutors.  We shall certainly involve young tutors again next year.

I had anticipated they would need much more guidance than they did, and was worried beforehand that it would be too much for the professional tutors to help the young tutors in addition to tutoring the groups themselves.  In the event, we felt completely confident in their abilities and the young players benefited from their advice not only about the music, but life after school.  At the evening concert the tutor for each group introduced the pieces, explaining to the audience the problems of the particular music and how they overcame them. 

We are extremely grateful to Bournemouth Borough Council Arts grant for their help in financing this year’s event.