Friends of Bury St. Edmunds County Music School

The Music School will be holding an Open Morning on Saturday the 12th March. Do invite your friends to come along and see what goes on and hear the rehearsals. Refreshments will be provided in the Library. Don’t forget to bring along cakes or biscuits for the cake stall and any music or musical instruments you would like to sell.

Happy New year to you all and welcome to a new term of Music School. A Newsletter was handed out yesterday with useful information about the Music School, but you can also see what’s happening via our Coming Events page.

A particular welcome to new KS2 Beginner Ensemble members and their parents/carers. Watch out for more details of our Buns and Biscuits and Music Sale at the Open Morning on Saturday 12th March.

If you are around on a Saturday Morning do visit our tuckshop for drinks and other goodies. Our tuckshop volunteers are always happy to chat and try and answer any of your questions.

As always, we need to recruit more volunteers to help with tuckshop once a term. If you would be happy to help us out, you can let us now via our Online Volunteering Form. Or come and talk to us at the tuckshop.

We have received a letter of appreciation from the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service for your generous donations at the BCMS Christmas Concert. See here…. SARS Thankyou Letter

Well done to the staff and all the performers at yesterday’s concert. Great entertainment! Thank-you to all who contributed mince pies, cakes and biscuits. Thank-you also for the generous donations. We raised a total of £240 for the charity Emergency medical charity Suffolk Accident Rescue Service. Well that’s it for Music School for this term. See you all next year.

There are three West Suffolk Youth Music concerts this week:

• Monday 30th November – West Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra and West Suffolk Youth Big Band Concert
• Friday 4th December – West Suffolk Youth Orchestra and West Suffolk Youth Wind Band Christmas Concert
• Saturday 5th December – BCMS Christmas Concert

Click on the links for more details.

P.S. Don’t forget to bring your donation of mince pies on Saturday to go with the seasonal refreshments.

See our Friends Committee page for news and photo from our Annual General Meeting. Welcome to our new committee members Alan Field, Julie Culpin, Karen Grant and Tom Culpin.

You are invited to join us for tea or coffee and biscuits at our Annual General Meeting in the library at County Upper School. Hear all about what we have been up to in 2014/15 and our plans for the coming year. Have your say in what we do to support our children’s musical activities and bring them new opportunities. The meeting will start at 10:30, but tea and coffee will be available beforehand.

The Friends’ Committee

Three of our current members are leaving & we need replacements to continue operating.

What does the Committee do?
Supports the operation of the County Music Service by:

• Providing support at concerts
• Fund raising to arrange events (such as the Anna Mudeka workshop last year)

‘Oh No! Another committee…’
Tasks & responsibilities primarily limited to the concerts at which your children will perform:

• Arranging refreshments (transporting & serving)
• Helping arrange chairs & collect tickets on the door
• One or two short committee meetings a term

If you are interested in supporting this wonderful opportunity for our children to make music, please attend the AGM on 17 October to find out more.

The deadline (5th October) is fast approaching for applications to the Suffolk County Music Ensembles 2015-16 season. You can find the Recruitment Brochure and Application Form on the Suffolk Music Hub site.

Two newsletters were issued this weekend. SYM West Newsletter Sep 2015, covering the activities of the area ensembles (West Suffolk Youth Orchestra, West Suffolk Youth Wind Band, West Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra and West Suffolk Youth Big Band) and BCMS Newsletter Sep 2015, covering the activities of the Saturday ensembles.

Please note that these are the last newsletters that will be printed and handed out. In future information will be provided via the Suffolk Music Hub Website , although you can continue to catch local news here.