News

The June 2015 Newsletter

FANFARE

 

Executive Director’s Message

 What a year!

From well received concerts since November, to all concerts that I’ve had the pleasure of attending, it’s been a very successful and event filled year, by all accounts. Congratulations to every member of staff who established performance goals, and are working towards them, making strides with good results whether at exams or at local festivals or great concert performances. This is a testament to the quality of performance from our best pupils but also from our visiting artists.

The entire KMS community is proud of your accomplishments. It is very evident that the enriched programming offered at KMS results in great achievement. This is, of course, also a credit to the wonderful faculty that we have teaching the various programmes. The support we receive from our donors and community organisations continues to enable us to provide widely variable programmes to enhance the private lessons and build a community of musicians.

 

Fundraising Concerts

 Village Mall ~ December

Kampala Singers and KMS Junior orchestra(accompanied by some Jazz group members and our ED conducting) performed Christmas Carols yielding 1.5m shillings in funds for KMS.

 

4th Connoisseurs Festival

The event received great press reviews and audience attendance. Radio One – one of our new sponsors – interviewed guest performer Michael Kitanda (recording artist and KMS alumni) and Kiggundu Musoke to publicise the event. Other notable performers who added flavour with energetic displays include Sauti Ya Africa, Nehemiah Kasika and Pragmo, all of whom performed at no cost. Sheraton Kampala continues to support this event, and the next one is booked for August 9th, 2015.

 

Miroslav Brejcha Concert

This was a joint effort between Caritas Prague and KMS. The turnout was very good given that it was in close proximity to a bigger concert with mixed marketing impact, making it difficult to reach audiences. We were treated to a great programme, which featured music from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, Czech dances, and a Chopin Scherzo. The concert generated a little over 1m shillings in funds and the artist also gave piano master classes to our eager advanced students, in

whose abilities he was impressed.

 

2015 Holiday Programme;

From an initial 4 children, to 48 children over the Christmas period – 13 of whom attended both sessions in December and in January – this programme continues to generate interest and enquiries, reinforcing the popularity and general love amongst the children, for the programme.

As a result also of this, KMS will have it’s first Summer Camp running from 29th June to July 11th catering now for children in the international school system for whom we had not previously been able to include.

The next holiday Programme for National schools is scheduled for 17th – 29th August 2015,

Then 7th – 19th December, 2015.

 

Programmes

Children’s Programme;

 

The children’s programme, which caters for ages 3-5 years, is growing in popularity, thanks to the coordinating team and the marketing effort. This programme introduces children to music lessons, and, the rhythm of attending music classes is initiated in families, enabling an easier transition into subsequent classes. Merian Mwase, the teacher-in-charge, has been working with two other teachers who come from different influences of the performing arts, mainly dance and

traditional African music. These teachers enrich the training that is divided up into 6 main aspects. Some students are ready for main instrumental lessons and will be moving into these in the new Academic year.

 

Concerts

The concert schedule is abuzz with activity. With five children’s concerts of 30 performers each and two Connoisseurs events, we have been able to provide performance opportunities not only for students, but also for teachers to showcase and inspire their students.

 

In November, The Dar Choral Society invited members of the KSO(String Players) to join in their big end of year concert. Raymond Hekima, the Society’s musical director, was very impressed and is now keen on inviting the group to perform at least three times a year. The group played again on March 28th and is scheduled to visit at the end of May. Raymond would also like to start a similar school like KMS in Dar es Salaam.

 

The Kampala Singers held a memorial concert last December in honour of Apollo Musoke (who was their music director) to celebrate 25 years since resumption of the choral group. The singing group has become an essential part of the KMS scene besides being a great support to the music school.

 

This year, our ED, Kiggundu was invited to guest conduct the Nairobi Orchestra in a programme that included Beethoven’s 8th Symphony and the Elgar Cello Concerto. The concert, which took

place in March, was a celebration of music across the region with a Cello soloist from Tanzania crowning it off as an East African affair.

 

With the above mentioned concerts in Nairobi, and in Dar es Salaam, there is much to show for the growth and popularity of classical music in the region, and increased co-operations of this

kind will be a staple for the future direction of the Music School.

 

KMS Performance Indicators

In recent times we have added a few programmes as part of our offering.

Keyboard instruments continue to dominate the instrumental teaching lessons, but the school is striving to increase the numbers and possibilities for people to learn more instruments in the other categories.

 

Keyboard – 54%

Guitar – 17%

Strings – 9%

Voice – 6%

Brass – 3%

Therapy – 1%

Theory – 1%

Woodwind – 4%

Percussion – 5%

General <1%

Choir <1%

Jazz <1%

 

New Outreach Centres

Gems Cambridge International School:

This programme, which started in February, is growing and is yet to normalise as we set up with an initial 14 students, some of whom are learning multiple instruments.

 

Aga Khan Secondary School:

This is a junior school programme, whose students, (some of whom graduated to Secondary School) we intend to sign up in a planned assembly.

 

Beacon School East Africa, Bugolobi

They are looking to start a programme in September this year. A partnership was formed with their head who is a huge supporter of KMS.

 

Marigold School:

This group is looking to partner with KMS to run music therapy sessions. The principal’s son attends KMS twice a week, but there are plans to extend the services to more children and engage Lore Herzer to lead the team, with Shafic as a teacher.

 

Other News

ABRSM conference in Cape Town ~ May 1st- 3rd

This was for all Africa and Middle East ABRSM representatives, and gave opportunity to interact and exchange ideas with the representatives from all over the region with about 30 delegates attending. The representatives had a chance to interact with the new ABRSM CEO, Mick Elliot, as well as other senior members of staff, to share and be a part of the strategic plans for the next 5 years.

This came at a time when the ABRSM numbers locally are growing and have so far exceeded the projections for the year 2015. It is good for Uganda, and we aim to focus more on good quality outcomes of the examinations, especially where it concerns KMS directly.

 

Doa Doa conference ~ Jinja May 4th- 9th

This is a great East African conference increasing in popularity and reach that attracts regional and international speakers and participants. It is a truly regional event with chances for students,

teachers and performers to interact, learn from and with other musicians from across the East African region.

The conference went really well and featured various themes about the direction of East African music, its relevance, and place and direction in the African and Global Music space. Delegates

went on to discuss how outlook could change and steps to do so with experts from all over Africa and beyond guiding and giving tips as to how this could be achieved.

 

Partnerships

In the recent years KMS has built up special partnerships with the following organizations:

 

• Bayimba Cultural Foundation

• Belgian embassy

• Alliance Francàise/French Embassy

• Musequality

• MLisada

• Tender talents

• Goethe Zentrum

• Munich Philharmonic Orchestra

• Kensington Symphony Orchestra

• Kampala Singers

• Sound Foundation

• Global Music Academy

We are working towards more partnerships in the future, and are happy with the support we have been getting so far.

 

Teacher Training

This training is done twice a term and is increasingly popular and well attended with teachers learning from each other and from visitors. Through our partners, KMS has received free training

opportunities for staff. The first training of this sort was a 3-day session by Sound Foundation in which alternative teaching methods was explored as a tool that could be added to the

current teaching tools.

 

In May, KMS will host teachers from the Global Music Academy for training sessions. The Academy, which has its headquarters in Berlin, has been holding trainings in Africa and developed a means of notating traditional music without the conventional staff notation, to enable traditional musicians notate their music quickly. KMS has strengthened this new relationship and some of our teachers have signed up to be a part of and learn from them

(GMA).

 

Donation

We continue to receive instrument donations, with particular appreciation to Susan Greenfield who has donated 70 violins. We are seeking support to have these brought from the UK to KMS,

in order to set up a violin programme. We also seek volunteers and teaching support to help roll out the programme.

Musequality, who are closing down, sent us a final donation of 18 violins, 2 trumpets, a cello, flute, trombone and a French Horn. Musequality’s first project was in Uganda, and it is sad to hear that they have had to close down having aided a lot of music based projects all over the world to start up or continue to function.

We have also received the complete set of parts for the 9 Beethoven Symphonies,Schubert Symphony no 7 and Mozart C major symphony from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

Please refer to the link for more details

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01mzmp9/broadcasts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p01n8xxr