Academy Sponsored Festival Week

The Academy would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of its Sponsored Festival Week - students, parents, teachers, friends, everyone who attended the events and supported them in any way. At the end of the week some $4,700.00 had been received but there are still a good number of sponsorship forms outstanding and we're confident that we shall easily surpass the target of $5,000.00. The Academy's youngest student, Jayden Wang, and his family made an outstanding contribution and raised $1,002.00!

Sponsored Festival Week takes place every second year and was one of Derek Hudson's schemes for keeping the Academy afloat. The idea was very simple: students perform at concerts held in the Sibson Hall, and family and friends are asked to make a donation or sponsor an agreed amount for each minute performed. In Derek's day the concerts were usually held at 7.30, but times have changed and 5.15 is much more practical and convenient for most students and parents so we now look to putting on a second fund-raising event later in the evening.

This year well over a hundred items were performed at the five 5.15 concerts, solos, groups and an orchestra, and the great majority of the Academy's students took part. Also performing were five school choirs (Carmel, Coghlan, C.B.C., Falcon and Girls' College) taking part in Choir Night, the Girls' College/Academy Orchestra, and dancers from the Montessori and Convent Schools, so altogether close to five hundred students were involved during the week. Joyful Noise, an adult choir, also participated in Choir Night and Academy teachers and others gave a chamber concert on Thursday evening. Krystina Cameron Davydova's animated 'Thunderwater' received its Zimbabwean premiere during the week and proved to be an outstanding achievement which deserves to be seen by a larger audience than was present on Thursday afternoon. A book sale launched the week, the two 'Marigold Hotel' films were shown (admittedly they have tenuous musical connections!) on successive evenings, there was a marimba competition, and a DVD of Mahler's Eighth Symphony featuring a choir of over twelve hundred, all young people, rounded things off.

Sponsored Festival Week has three main aims - to give a platform for the Academy's students and, indeed, any musicians who want to perform; to provide entertainment and enjoyment for those who come to listen; and to raise funds to bolster the Academy's finances. It's fair to say that it succeeded in all three this year and the Academy is very grateful for the support it received from all who performed and all who supported so generously.