Friends of Bury St. Edmunds County Music School

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.

Apologies to all who have been trying to access the site since last Saturday. Our hosting provider has had problems and ours was one of the sites affected. The site was down last weekend and restored on Sunday but they still had problems so it has been moved to a new machine. Unfortunately this involved restoring the site to last Friday’s backup. I think I’ve now completed redoing all this week’s updates, but let me know if you find anything incorrect, out of date or not working.

There has been a change to the Saturday Morning Instructions… Unfortunately the school has now got rid of the folding tables we have used in the past. You will need to collect a couple of tables from the Music Classroom (which is not used between 9 and 10 or 11 and 12), and return them when you pack up. Please note also that the Treasurer will now be cashing up on Fridays not Saturdays, so when you pack up please return the red cash box to Mr. Carlsen.

There is a revised timetable for Saturday Mornings…

	Mr N. Carlson	Mrs S. Wakeman	Mr M. Tatt	Mr M. Waters
09.00		Cygnet Strings Large Hall	Improvisation Group Drama Room	Percussion Ensemble Recital Room
10.00	Senior Strings Large Hall	Choir Music Classroom	Junior Band Drama Room	Senior Wind Band Recital Room
11.00		Junior Strings Recital Room	5-Note Band Drama Room	Orchestra Large Hall

For more details see our Weekly Sessions page.

The Suffolk County Music Service are inviting all string players to attend their Strings Playing Day on Sunday 20 September 2015 at Northgate Arts Centre, Ipswich. The day is organised as part of a planned programme of activities in partnership with Suffolk County Music Service (SCMS), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), Orchestras Live, the Northgate Foundation and Ipswich Regent Theatre. This invitation is open to:

• all string players who have been playing for at least 2 years and who have achieved at least grade 2 or equivalent standard;
• string players who live in Suffolk or attend a state-funded school/college in Suffolk (local authority maintained, academy or free);
• players who are a current member of the CMS’ Suffolk Youth Music programme of activities.

More details…

The new school year will begin shortly. Draft tuckshop rotas have been published here (password required) and the Calendar and Coming Events updated. If you are expecting to be on the rota and haven’t had an email, please let me know… email John. As always, with people moving on at the end of the school year, we are in need of a few more volunteers to ensure we can continue to run the tuckshop on a Friday evening and Saturday morning every week. If you would like to join us please contact us via the Tuckshop Volunteer Form.

Many thanks to all who contributed with the yummy cakes and biscuits… and to the contributions from the audience for them and the refreshments, which raised nearly £110. It was a full house with standing room only and one of the hottest days of the year, so well done to all the performers. I hope they enjoyed their massed forces’ performance of Mars from Holst’s Planets (photo above) as much as we enjoyed seeing them do it.

A BCMS Summer Concert 2015 Letter and Consent Form was issued to students today. If you missed it you can download a copy by clicking the link. Forms are to be returned by Saturday 27th June.