Review of 2020

Here it is, our annual review …

What a year?!?!

It probably goes without saying that 2020 has had more ups and downs than a bouncy castle at a birthday party. But one thing has remained a constant: there’s been some excellent news stories and bags of student achievement.

Back in February, just before COVID entered our lives: we managed a solo singing showcase in at Caddies. It was another afternoon of amazing performances and strides forward for students. Unknown to us, this was to become our final live performance of the year!

Around the same time Heidi, one of our students made the transition onto staff, becoming our very first student coach - this was a major stride forward for our objective of supporting students pursuing a career in music.

Then came lockdown …

In early March our founder started researching how to deliver our lessons online and just a week later, we trialled our first sessions over some video conferencing software called Zoom: little did we know that this was to become our new location for much of the remainder of the year!

This did not stop our students; two gained places and went off to prestigious colleges: BIMM and Performers - they were to be the first amongst our student community to go through the audition process online.

Most of our students adapted really well to the switch from face to face to online learning. They worked really hard with a positive and mature attitude, embracing all the challenges we threw their way.

Social Media was to become our new stage and as a result, we saw students becoming more and more creative: below is a performance from Moss, who’s last submission was a full scale music video, on location!

In the summer term our songwriters worked towards their first online showcase. The output from this was amazing to see: they had all embraced the challenge of music making remotely, some making really good use of their newfound skills in technology. The showcase was repeated at Christmas, highlighting progress across the board: use of technology, more metaphorical lyric writing, enhanced performance skills, increased confidence and once again, the quality of work had improved massively.

Just before we went into tier 4, we were able to see a handful of students at our new premises in Southend. It was a joy to have each and every one of them in the building: not only was it amazing to see their real faces, they each performed beautifully: further testimony to the hard work, consistent practise and passion students have continued to maintain throughout this year: WE COMMEND YOU ALL!

We started 2020 with lots of exciting plans. One of these plans was our new relationship with local charity Ewan’s Music Trust; who share our ethos for providing music making opportunities for all children and young people. Together we launched our student bursar programme and ran some music projects during lockdown. We plan on continuing this work in the coming year and have some exciting news coming soon.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our junior musos from the lockdown project, performing their lockdown version of Old Town Road!

Happy New Year!