Author: Susanna Cassam

This month SCMT are featuring the brilliant Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky first found fame as a composer for the Russian ballet. His three most famous works are The Firebird (1910),  Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). These three works became renowned, not only in the ballet music world but also the music world in general.

The third ballet, The Rite of Spring, however was the most revolutionary. It used rhythmic ideas never seen in the world of ballet before. There were changes in time signature, tempo and off beat rhythms that lead the way for a change, again not only in the ballet music world but also the music world in general.

Even in his early career Stravinsky really was a forward thinking composer, leading the way for new compositional techniques and ideas.

Just a quick note to let all of our tutors, friends and pupils know that I’m expecting another baby at Christmas.  A lovely surprise!  Louis will just about be on his feet in time for the new arrival…  gulp!  Lots of love to all, Susanna.

This month SCMT are going back to the classical world and will be featuring Russian composer and pianist Igor Stravinsky.

Born in 1882 Stravinsky had a huge impact on 20th century music…. watch this space for more…

Yesterday saw the last day of this year’s festival and today is also the last day of our Glastonbury month…

So what were the highlights of this year’s festival…

The biggest crowd was for country singer Dolly Parton, who performed on the Sunday afternoon.

The three headliners were Arcade Fire, Metallica and Kasabian.

175,000 people were there and tickets cost £210…. a far cry from the first Glastonbury in 1970 when tickets cost only £1!

It rained! In typical Glastonbury fashion…on the Friday there was even a lightning storm and the stages had to be closed.

That’s all from our Glstonbury month… watch this space for July’s feature!

This years Glastonbury Festival is well underway, fingers crossed it doesn’t rain too much! So how about some more history… we’ve now made it to 1999 so what happened in the 00s….

From 2000 – 2009 the attendance went up from 100,000 to 135,000 and the ticket price went from £87 to £175.

Throughout the 00s the festival raised £1000s for Greenpeace, Oxfam, Water Aid and many more local charities.

More and more stages and fields were added, including the Dance Village and The John Peel Stage.

The festival was becoming incredibly popular, in some years the tickets sold out within 24 hours!

Once again there were a fair share of muddy festivals… particularly 2005 where 2 months of rainfall fell in only a couple of hours, flooding many areas of the festival!

Acts included: Basement Jaxx, Coldplay, Brian Wilson, Lilly Allen, Blur, Jay Z, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Oasis, Stereophonics, and 100s more!

Source: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/history/

Today is a big day for many of our students who are sitting their ABRSM exams. Here at SCMT we want to wish them good luck and just so you know we have our fingers and toes crossed for you… although we’re sure that with all the hard work you’ve put in you won’t need it!

Don’t forget, you must be there with plenty of time so that you can have a good warm up and go into the exam nice and relaxed.

We’ll look forward to getting those results….

Well so far in our Glastonbury month we have seen it grow from the first ever festival in 1970 to 1989, but what happened in the 90s….

In 1990 it took on the name Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts – as it is still known today.

In 1990 there were 70,000 people at the festival and tickets were £38 in 100,500 people were there and tickets were £83.

In 1992 after the end of the cold war it was decided they would no longer give to the CND but instead raised money for Greenpeace and Oxfam. In the first year the festival raised £250,000 for charity.

1994 was a big year, it saw the iconic Pyramid stage burn down! Luckily it was replaced in time for the festival. This year was also the first year the festival was televised (by channel 4).

The end of the 90s saw a lot of mud, the 97 and 98 festival were complete mud baths…but it didn’t stop people having a great time!

Acts included: REM, Fatboy Slim, Blur, Bob Dylan, Robbie Williams, The Prodigy, Radiohead, Th Cure, Oasis, The Levellers, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream and many more!

As you may know this month SCMT are featuring Glastonbury festival. Our last blog saw the start of the festival in the 1970s… but it really started to grow in the 1908s…

During the 80s the iconic Pyramid Stage (pictured) was rebuilt (and used as a cow shed during the rest of the year!)

The attendance went from 18,000 in 1981 to a whopping in 65,000 in 1989 and the ticket price went up from £8 to £28.

1981 was the first “Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament” festival and throughout the 80s the festival made thousands of pounds for this charity.

1982 saw the first laser show… something that features heavily in today’s festival.

Throughout the 80s the organisers encountered many problems with the licensing and authorities but it managed to conquer all obstacles and continue to run!

Acts included: Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, New Order, The Cure, Madness, Simply Red, Joe Cocker, The Beat, UB40 and Curtis Mayfield.

Source: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/history/

Here at SCMT we received this lovely letter from ‘amaze’ the charity we have been raising money for throughout the SCMT Youth Music Festival… it’s so good to see what great things the money will be used for!

‘Dear Susanna, teachers, parents and pupils,

Please accept this letter as a sincere thank you for the generous donation of £520 for Amaze from the SCMT Youth Music Festival.

As you know, Amaze gives information, advice and support to parents of children with special needs and disabilities in Brighton and Hove. We work to empower parents to expect and get the best for their children. We support families through the emotional and practical demands of getting the right services in finance, education, health care and leisure.

The Amaze Helpline (01273 772289) is often the first point of call when a child is diagnosed with a special need, and is the front door to other Amaze services and impartial information. We deal with over 3000 telephone enquiries a year from parent carers and professionals and demand is increasing. In fact, numbers have nearly doubled over the last two years. This service is continually overstretched and underfunded.

Parents really value the helpline, for many of them it has been life changing. It gives them up to date information, practical advice and often more importantly a listening ear. The recent evaluation showed that parent satisfaction levels were over 93%. Here is a link to more information about the helpline and opening hours https://amazebrighton.org.uk/services-and-support/amaze-services/helpline/

Your donation is truly appreciated and will help us to continue to keep the Amaze Helpline running.’

Options of an immediate or September start

1 -1 instrumental lessons (no groups) in Brighton and Hove

Excellent rates of pay

Between 3 and 20 hours a week, you decide how much time you can spare

Interviews taking place throughout June and July

Own transport preferred but not essential

Contact us on 07720 771053/01273 504505 or email [email protected]

Did you know that that tickets to the first Glastonbury Festival (although at that point called Pilton Pop, Blues and Folk Festival) only cost £1?! Included in the ticket price was free milk from the farm it was held on!

The First ever Glastonbury Festival was held in 1970 and attended by over 1500 people. T’Rex were the headliners. It was put on by a man named Michael Eavis and held on his farm. He still runs the festival today and it is still held on his farm.

Source: https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/history/

Here at SCMT we are very pleased to announce that throughout the SCMT Youth Music Festival we raised £520 for local Brighton charity ‘amaze’. ‘Amaze’ is a fantastic cause that helps support parents and families with children with special needs. Thank you so much to everyone that has donated and helped to make the festival such a success. Particular thanks to Ackerman Music for sponsoring our festival, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Sunday saw the last event of the SCMT Youth Music Festival… and what an event it was. We had some outstanding performances, the SCMT staff were incredibly impressed… well done guys!

As we grow older it’s almost as though we learn how to be nervous, during the children’s concerts we watch them stroll up to the stage with few nerves, but it becomes a very different story as we get older. So it really was great to see so many brilliant adult and advanced students grace the stage.

That has concluded this years SCMT Youth Music Festival, we still have lots of thank you’s and an announcement on how much we raised for our chosen charity ‘amaze’, so please watch this space for more…

Throughout the SCMT Youth Music Festival we have been raising money for ‘amaze’ a local charity supporting parents and families who have children with special needs. We are still raising money for this brilliant charity so if you haven’t donated there will be another opportunity to do so at our last event (Adults and Advanced Students Concert) on Sunday. If you can’t make that please get in touch on 01273 504505 for info on donating. Any donation will be greatly received….

For more information on all the great work ‘amaze’ do please visit their website http://amazebrighton.org.uk.

Last week saw a whole host of SCMT Youth Music Festival events. We had 1 on 1 sight reading and aural sessions, theory bootcamp, mock exams, filmed performances and competitions, all of which were a resounding success.

Our students taking part in the sight reading, aural and theory classes all went away with lots of new skills to put into practice and a shiny SCMT certificate. Those sitting a mock exam now know exactly what they need to work on for their upcoming exam and also have a shiny SCMT certificate. Then we saw some brilliant performances in the competiton…. and of course they all went away with a shiny SCMT certificate!

Thanks to all those who came and took part in last week’s events and don’t forgot the SCMT Youth Music Festival is not over yet…. we still have Sunday’s Adults and Advances Students Concert…. hope to see many of you there!

Here at SCMT we will be featuring Glastonbury Festival as our Composer/Musician of the Month… yes we know it’s neither a composer of musician but to celebrate the SCMT Youth Music Festival and all the great musicians that feature at this brilliant music festival we thought we’d do something a little different. Glastonbury Festival takes place on the last weekend of June, so throughout this month we will be featuring some of the great performances and history of this historic music festival… watch this space for more!

Last Thursday saw the SCMT Youth Music Festival grades 3-4 competition… and what a competition it was! We had some brilliant performances, it was wonderful to see how well our students are doing. We had great technique, expression, accuracy and characterisation and it was very difficult for the judges to pick a winner…But it had to be done and the following were our winners:

1st place – Dan Hutton

2nd place – Ruby O’Connell Rogers

3rd place – Jonah Mitchell

Congratulations to our winners and a massive well done to everyone who took part, you all did brilliantly, we are very proud here at SCMT.