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Durham Young Musicians Spring Term News 2020
With thanks
DYM thanks Mr John Treherne for his donation of £120
on be- half of the North of England Tournament Trust. The dona- tion
supported the funding of the Summer Festival.
New committee members
The DYM desperately needs new committee members to support
its activities, in particu- lar, a secretary, and a member- ships
secretary. Please contact Vanessa Kind (Chair) to if you would like to
join.
The Summer Festival
The Summer Festival in July was as popular as ever with 30 young performers taking part.
The festival was a welcome return to Durham for organist, conductor and
choral director Ralph Woodward who was adjudicator for the event at
Durham High School for Girls.
Ralph, who is now based in Cambridge where he is director of the
Fairhaven Sing- ers, was brought up in Durham and was a former pupil of
Durham School and an organ scholar at Durham Cathedral.
Young musicians from beginner level to post-Grade 8 took part and Ralph gave individual reports on all of the performances.
DYM chair Vanessa Kind said: ‘We were delighted to have Ralph as
our adjudica- tor this year. He was really positive and encouraging to
everyone taking part. It was a wonderful afternoon and a real
celebration of music making.’ The Junior Cup was won by Joy He
and the runner-up was Dinghi Ma.
The Intermediate Cup was won by Edmund Smith and the runner-up was Ruixian Li.
The Senior Cup was won for the second year run- ning by James Barker and the runner-up was Moses Hung.
The Jack Smith Trophy for the most promising young musician who had not won one of the other trophies went to Jenny Hu.
James Etherington Music Award
DYM pianist Beau Beveridge won first prize (£400) at this recent music event, hosted by the Ro- tary Club Chester-le-St.
The Christmas Concert
The Christmas concert was a great success and very well
attended. We were pleased to wel- come Finchale Primary School again
and the choir premiered a delightful Christmas song writ- ten specially
for them by Gail Bartley, a friend and former committee member of DYM,
who coached the choir for the performance.
Annual Visit to Hallgarth
Young musician Anthony Panke played on a vio- lin he had
made himself when DYM members en- tertained residents at Hallgarth Care
Home in September.
Anthony, who is a pupil at Durham School, played Bach and Telemann on
the instrument he made in his workshop at home in Durham City.
Anthony was one of a talented line-up of performers for a lively concert of folk songs and classics.
The Hallgarth concerts, organised by Mandy Hampshire, have become a
regular feature of the DYM year and are always enjoyed by the young
musicians and their very welcoming audience.
Residents sang along to traditional favourites like What Shall We Do
with the Drunken Sailor and Coming Round the Mountain while Over the
Rainbow and I Got Rhythm brought back many memories.
DYM Chair Vanessa Kind, who accompanied her trombonist daughter Lydia
at the concert, said: ‘We are always happy to come to Hallgarth.
DYM 50th Anniversary
Guest speaker Anthony Williams cuts a cake to celebrate
DYM's 50th anniversary after his presentation on the Secret Life of the
Piano at North Road Methodist Church in October. In the background -
helping as always - is the church's caretaker Malcolm Scott.
ABRSM Examination Results, Winter 2020
Congratulations to DYM members on achieving these results in the Summer music exam series:
Charlotte Kettle Grade 1 Piano Pass
Olivia Kettle Grade 1 Piano Distinction
Alan Lowery Grade 1 Piano Merit
Aaron Gibson Grade 3 Piano Pass
Camille Beattie Grade 4 Piano Merit
Guy Wong Grade 6 Piano Merit
Alice Bartley Grade 8 Piano Merit
Toni Wong Grade 8 Piano Pass
Profiling DYM Committee Member: Ian Rudd
Ian was brought up in Warcop, a small village in Cumbria.
Its main claims to fame are the annual Rushbearing Festival, which
takes place on 29 June each year, and the Army Training Range, where
thousands of soldiers have done military exercises on the surrounding
fells since the 1940s.
The family house was formerly the village tailor's shop and living
accommo- dation. It was previously occupied by the village draper,
Charles Short, whose son, Ted Short, trained as a teacher at the
College of the Venerable Bede, Durham University. Subsequently, Ted
became an MP for Newcastle upon Tyne and rose to the dizzy heights of
Postmaster General in the Har- old Wilson Government. He was
responsible for banning Radio Caroline, one of the Pirate Radio ships
of that era.
There was a piano in the Rudd family home but the room was rather cold,
as that was in the days before central heating, and so piano practice
was rather spasmodic. The local piano teacher was rather uninspiring,
and maybe the pupil did not have sufficient enthusiasm either, so
eventually the piano playing fizzled out. However, it did lay the
foundation for an appreciation of music in later life.
After O and A levels in the local secondary school in Kirkby Stephen,
Ian travelled to Sheffield to attend the university there to study
physics. The three year course was interesting and challeng- ing.
Living in an industrial city was a great change from rural Cumbria, but
the nearby Peak Dis- trict National Park was compensation, and many
weekend activities took place in the countryside of Derbyshire.
After leaving University, Ian then spent three years in Liverpool
studying for further professional qualifications before moving to the
North East for work. Employment took him first to Darling- ton, then
Newcastle, and finally to Washington where he spent a number of years,
based at the Nissan car assembly plant but visiting many of the Nissan
sites world-wide.
Ian's involvement with Durham Young Musicians started when his daughter
Kathleen started pi- ano lessons with Barry Maleham and, about the same
time, violin lessons initially with the school music service and then
with Jean Provine. The regular matinees and special concerts were a
great opportunity for her to get experience of performance on both
violin and piano, and she got a lot out of her membership of DYM.
Soon after Kathleen joined DYM, some long standing committee members
stood down, and there was concern that the organisation would not be
able to continue. Ian agreed to take over the role as Secretary of the
society, and the new committee put a lot of effort into rejuvenating
DYM by encouraging new teachers to send along pupils to the events.
Most of the matinee events took place at the University Music School.
However, there were many more formal concerts in the 1990s and 2000s,
some of the more notable taking place in the DLI Museum in Aykley
Heads, before the piano was sold and we had to find a new venue for
events. After that, concerts largely took place at St Cuthbert's
Church, North Road, and at North Road Methodist Church.
After around 20 years as Secretary, this role was handed over to a
successor, and Ian is currently Treasurer and Membership Secretary of
the Society.
It is good to report that DYM continues to thrive. It offers great
opportunities for young musi- cians to have experience of, and
enjoyment in, performing in public. Ian has been pleased to help the
Society in achieving these aims over several decades. The success of
the Society and its con- tinued prosperity does rely on parents and
teachers joining and supporting the Committee, so new members of the
Committee are always welcome!
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