1646 - Issue 1

Brassy beginnings About ten years ago, airline pilot and current Reading Blue Coat parent Jim Trott learned that the Berkshire Maestros – where his son Angus (now an Old Blue) played in a junior band – were getting rid of 30 well-used brass instruments, so he decided to use his contacts in Uganda to find them a new home. Through his friend Bosco Segawa – a street child who had grown up to build an orphanage and then an organisation, M-Lisada, around music education in Uganda – Jim donated the instruments to the Good Shepherd Home in Kampala. ‘I thought that was it’, Jim says, ‘but when I went back to Uganda, I saw that the impact on the children who had access to music was profound. They had a new confidence, a new self-belief, and it was very, very powerful to see with my own eyes. I wasn’t actually looking to set up a charity; it was a reaction to what happened after those donated instruments arrived’. Jim realised that the music not only provided the children with a way to cope with extreme poverty, but also gave them a sustainable passion, a focus in their lives, and a new set of life skills. This was something to be nurtured and developed – and so Brass for Africa was born. ‘Brass for Africa has identified eight key attributes associated with learning music, so – alongside the music – we know we’re delivering self-confidence, leadership skills, teamwork skills, grit, perseverance, resilience, concentration and communication’, Jim says. ‘Each music lesson results in transferable life skills, which can be applied to the participants’ everyday lives’. The charity works with slum community organisations and specific marginalised youth education programmes and, in partnership with international organisations such as Plan International and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, it has over 20 programmes supporting more than 1000 children and young people each week and making a positive change in the lives of disadvantaged youth in Africa. Beyond the pupils, Brass for Africa’s programme benefits more than 40 local employees working in Africa. The charity recently employed Oxford graduate and former Reading Blue Coat music teacher, Lizzie Burrowes, as Director of Music Education in Kampala, in order to work with – and support – the charity’s more than 20 teachers – all alumni of the Brass for Africa programme. ‘My job is to educate and mentor the teachers; they’re outreaching to 1000 children a week, so this gives greater capacity’, Lizzie says. ‘They are inspirational to their pupils because they’re from similar backgrounds, they’re alumni of the programme and many of them have learned instruments from scratch with Brass for Africa; they are the perfect people to be delivering on the ground. They’re doing so much wonderful work day-to-day, but they might plateau in terms of their own musical education, and some of their pupils have reached almost the same level as them, so they can really benefit from having a full-time educational musician’. Reading Blue Coat on board Angus Trott joined RBC in 2011 and, although he and his sister Gracie (currently in Year 12 at the School) had been playing music with Brass for Africa in Uganda for many years, and telling people about their experiences, it wasn’t until Angus was in Year 8 that the school learned about the charity. ‘That’s when people started taking an interest in the photos of my last trip to Uganda’, Angus says. That year, Assistant Director of Music, Nicola Watmough-Starkie, donated the funds raised by the Lower School disco to Brass for Africa. When Nicola went on maternity leave, Lizzie Burrowes took over her role – and the Brass for Africa mantle. ‘I saw this extraordinary meeting in the staffroom with Jim and two Ugandan teachers, and thought: Something really special is happening here’, Lizzie says. ‘When I researched Brass for Africa, I saw this wonderful videowith Brass for Africa patrons Alison Balsom [OBE] and Guy Barker [MBE] looking at the charity’s impact. You could see children living in really difficult situations, who now had this thing that they were immensely proud of and were really presenting themselves well. I thought: Yeah, I have to be involved with that’. Fortunately, Lizzie was able to spend time with Brass for Africa in Kampala, where she helped organise a tour that would benefit both the pupils at Reading Blue Coat and the young musicians in Uganda. Before the tour could happen, however, funds had to be raised. On her return, Lizzie formed a Community Choir, which took an active part in many RBC fundraising music concerts. Jim says: ‘I saw the same thing here as I saw in Uganda: parents, staff and alumni taking more of an interest in the School’s musical community because they were involved in the concerts’. Then came the 24-hour, fundraising Musicathon, involving musicians from the whole school community and ending with a live link to the Brass for Africa bandstand in Kampala. The event raised around £3000. ‘It really galvanised this community behind a common cause’, Jim says. ‘The Reading Blue Coat community were no strangers to supporting charitable causes’, Lizzie says, ‘but it’s more powerful if you support a cause through performing music – by doing something that you love, and enabling other people to do the same thing.’ They are inspirational to their pupils because they’re from similar backgrounds, they’re alumni of the programme and many of them have learned instruments from scratch. 1 8