A "Spring Celebration of Music" held in the Wyndham Concert Hall on 18th March was a fitting swan song for the Wyndham Music Centre which has been for thirty-four years, in the words of David Day, been "one of the most significant community partnerships in West Cumbria." The concert offered an astonishing range of music, and provided a platform for performers of all ages and abilities, and demonstrated, again in David's words, how the Centre had "brought together young people and families from all across the area promoting excellence in the sheer fun of making music together."
Young students experiencing the early pleasure of making tunes on keyboards or on guitars had their place alongside very polished performances by the Wyndham Windband and the Studio Orchestra, while the the Indonesian Gamelan created its own haunting sounds as the players, each alert to what the others were doing, rather like jazz players, created spontaneous music in an ancient oriental tradition that is still adaptable to our own place and age. They helped us to understand why their performances of The Musical Stonemason had created such a strong impression at the South Bank and The Sage, Gateshead. They will perform this work again at Theatre by the Lake on 19th April. The Windband and the Crabapple Ceilidh Band, which soon had feet tapping to its irresistible rhythms, have also travelled far and wide from Music Centre - for instance to play in Austria or at the Hexham Youth Folk Festivals, or on London's South Bank.
David himself, resplendent in his costume, was soon teaching the steps of a Morris dance, as the concert proved to be an occasion for learning as much as rehearsed performance, as young musicians enjoyed all the teamwork leading to sharing delight in performance. He had first come along twenty years ago to bring his sons, who were members for nigh on ten years and has since stayed on to help out.
All of this arose from the vision and enthusiasms of the Music service and other tutors who turn up on Saturday mornings year by year, but David and others are still uncertain what lies ahead beyond this concert. No-one from the Academy has come forward to help us plan for the future, he points out. We all hope that the new Principal will meet with the Friends of the Music Centre to build a new community partnership from this September.