Aim Higher Event 2009

On Wednesday 23rd September 2009, Soar Valley Music Centre held our second ever Aim Higher day, hoping to show Students of Leicester and Leicestershire how many University and employment opportunities there are in the music industry.

Six lucky school groups attended, in several sessions throughout the day. Each session began with a talk from Professional Cellist- and Conductor of Soar Valley Music Centre Symphony Orchestra- Chris Dunn, where he spoke of the different routes you can take in the music industry and what to be prepared for. One student told us "There are far more jobs in music than I thought!", a sentiment which was echoed by many of the students attending.

In the Main Hall, we had representatives from De Montfort University(Leicester), University of Derby, The University of Northampton and Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln . We also had a table with general Aim Higher information about University; including how to get there and how to sort out funding for it. The final table was the Soar Valley Music Centre table, informing the students of the work that we do here. We had information on the extra curricular, and indeed full-time courses they can study with us, the Ensembles and Orchestras we run, as well as associated projects such as the Glastonbudget Music Festival. It was fantastic to see so many of the students taking a serious interest in higher education, especially as many of them are only in school year 9. One student even said:"I found out that I can do a joint honours degree, so I can take Drama and Music". It was fantastic for those organising this event to know that they had given someone the necessary information to help them find the right course for them in higher education- and that's just one person. Hopefully with this event and the ongoing efforts of Music Centre, we can continue to help as many young people as possible to find the right course and careers for themselves in music.

In the Studio and upstairs rooms, we had lots of workshops showing the diversity of what you can do with music. The Studio was home to a whole host of interesting noises, as students had the chance to make tracks using simply their own voices and some editing software. This was very popular with many of the children as you did not need to know how to play an instrument to do it, which is a true representation of the Soar Valley motto- "Music for Everyone!"
Upstairs, creative juices were flowing in the Computer Room, where the students learnt to use music writing and editing software.
Next door to that was quite possibly the loudest room of the day- the Open Mic Room. Here the students had a chance to sing along to backing tracks of their favourite songs, with some fantastic singing talents emerging throughout the day. For all wannabe MCs there was the DJ room, with the opportunity to learn how to use all of the specialist equipment and how to look after it, and most importantly how to make a lot of noise!
The final room was one big jamming session for anyone who fancied being a bit of a rocker. In no time at all the lucky students in this room learnt how to to play the Guitar, Bass Guitar or Drums- many of them completely from scratch- and by the end of the session most groups mastered a whole song- a fantastic achievement for all, particularly those who hadn't played those particular instruments before.

As the students browsed the displays in the hall and circulated through the workshop rooms, the excitement was evident. The day was educational, but most of all Students were having fun doing music. It is a truly thrilling thought that these talented youngsters would go away from Music Centre with the ability, the information, and most importantly the passion to go on to study music, and possibly make careers out of it. After all, what better gift can we give to the young people of today than help with getting a career doing something they love?

There are many ways I could sum up the day, however none seem better than the words of one of the students who attended; "I enjoyed it all. It was a great day".

-Rachel Wheeler