Supporting 20 talented students to study music

Thank you to everyone who has supported our appeal. Through your generosity we have been able to consider a number of students to be supported for the scheme, and they were able to start lessons in September. We would like to give you an update on several of the students we introduced you to in our last report.

Edison   

Edison hails from Seeta, Mukono. He is dedicated and self-driven and has shown great potential of being a good Pianist. He has encountered some personal and logistical issues with lesson attendance and practice, but is working to improve these. He is working on building up his base technique to a level that will enable him to attempt Grade 4 ABRSM Practical exams next year, 2018 and Theory Grade 5 with the objective of doing the latter exam in October of 2018.

Despite having challenges with transport for lessons and also to come into practice because of other life commitments, he is committed to trying to get regular practice. He has a keyboard at home, but power has meant he has struggled to be regular with practice. Despite the challenges, his teacher is encouraged by his progress.

Edison would like to extend his heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all those who have sponsored his lessons through Kampala Music School, giving him the opportunity of receiving a music study bursary to enhance his music career and transform the community through music. He said:

“I pledge that as God is my guide, I will make use of this special privilege to enable me and the music school achieve the individual and institutional goals and objectives even to higher grounds.”

Kristen

Kristen is a 13 year old Ugandan girl, third born in a family of 4 and is currently in grade 8 at Bethel School. She hasn’t had as many lessons as hoped, as her regular school schedule makes it difficult. However, she and the family are looking to ways to adjust this so she can attend more regularly. She is working on perfecting her gestures of playing and sitting postures and has been working given exercises by her teacher.

She is really really keen and always wants to play her pieces very quickly due to excitement but is currently working on improving her patience to learn things correctly. Also, with more time during her holidays, she can have more lessons to catch up.

She said: “I would like to thank my sponsors for choosing me and I know that I can benefit from this programme because I love to play.”

John Paul

John Paul, aged 24 years, lives in Makerere, Kikoni in Kampala. His lessons are going really well and he recently sat for his ABRSM Theory Grade 5 exam in October 2017 and scored 84/100, a Merit and is currently working towards, ABRSM Grade 6 Practical Exams due in May-June 2018. He has started working on 2 pieces and perfecting his first piece specifically in speed and fingering. He has also looked at and worked on 14 scales on his own while consulting his teacher with 14 scales so far. The areas that need perfection/improvement are sight reading and emphasis is now being put on improving this.

As John Paul has decided to make music his profession he has started experimenting with other instruments to round up his experience. He hopes to become proficient in these as well, and learns from fellow students as much as he can, often spending the whole day at the music school, even though that may mean he will go without lunch.

He said: “My ultimate goal is to learn as much about music generally as the more I cover more grades and my ultimate goal is to study and attain a Degree of Music from the Royal College of Music”

“I thank my sponsors for being generous and sacrificing part of what they have for my education and my fellow Bursary students. I promise not to let them down and to work hard beyond their expectations. I also promise to give back freely at some point of my life. May God Bless you abundantly.”

As you can see, they all remain keen to learn, and to try and overcome some of the many challenges they are experiencing. Thank you for your continued support to Kampala Music School – the centre of excellence in Uganda for classical and jazz music

Thank you to everyone who has supported our appeal. Through your generosity we have been able to consider a number of students to be supported for the scheme, to start lessons in September. We would like to introduce you to a few of them:

Kathy

First up is Kathy, a young Ugandan girl of 11 years, currently studying at Kampala Parents School where she is in Primary 6. She lives with her mother in Kampala, but her father stays in Busia. She was drawn to learning the violin because the sound it produces makes her happy. She applied for a bursary because she believes she has the talent and wants to develop it further. Her mother is a stay home parent and they do not have the resources for her to continue music lessons. Having started the violin, she was doing well, was a motivated student and was making good progress, but was about to drop out due to a lack of funds. When applying for a bursary she said  “I believe if I get the bursary, my talent will not be wasted. I hope to learn, and become a professional at the violin and one day return the favour by training others.”

Edison   

Edison hails from Seeta, Mukono and comes from a humble family and started studying music at the age of 16 in church and also at school, which enabled him to develop musically and professionally. He is passionate about singing and researching into music, performing and teaching. Edison, who is 32, applied for a bursary in order to become a better player and become good enough to teach others. His long term goal is to contribute to the growth of KMS by becoming a teacher and also teaching music in his community.

Kristen

Kristen is a 13 year old Ugandan girl, third born in a family of 4 and is currently in grade 8 at Bethel School. She lives with her mother, a stay at home mum. She and her sister Kathy, had some lessons in the holiday, but such is the situation at home that they were unable to carry on with lessons, in spite of a keenness to do so.  Her teacher (Shafic) found her to be incredibly self motivated, passionate, practiced hard and as such made quick progress. She applied for a bursary because she has a passion for music and her mother cannot afford to pay for her music lessons. She said “If I am granted the bursary, I know that I will learn to be open and this will boost my confidence. I would also love to perform and share my talent with others.”

John Paul

John Paul, aged 24 years, lives in Makerere, Kikoni in Kampala and  comes from a humble, simple and hardworking background. As a child, his step father taught him how to play the Guitar and this inspired me to love music even more.  He loves music because it is a way of communicating, and always felt that music is his calling, that he was meant to do. Since the age of 14 years he has worked to earn a living, after his senior 6 he had no means of paying fees. He applied for a bursary at KMS as paying for lessons was rather challengeing. He had set his mind to making music as a career and felt that in order to achive this he would need to have consistent lessons. He recently sat his Grade 5 Guitar ABRSM Practical exams in June 2017 and scored  130/150 (Distinction). He is hoping that with this additional help he will be able to achieve higher ABRSM grades going as far as the Diploma. Having not managed to get to University, he is putting his entire focus into studying music. He would also like to learn other instruments apart from the Guitar so as to be  a more diverse and rounded musician. “After I have achieved all of this, I would like to give back to Kampala Music School and society in general by helping others utilise their abilities.”

We look forward to telling you how they are getting on, along with others, in our next report – Thank you for your continued support to Kampala Music School – the centre of excellence in Uganda for classical and jazz music