On Monday this week Kate was delighted to perform alongside pupils from King’s School in Rochester, along with visiting choirs from IAPS schools across the country. The Festival of Singing was the first event of it’s kind run by IAPS and was held at the stunning Rochester Cathedral, with proceeds being donated to the itrust charity.

Pupils sang a variety of songs, including religious choral works and popular / folk numbers. Kate’s involvement was to play with the orchestra for 2 of the massed choir pieces; Vivaldi’s Gloria (on piccolo trumpet) and the Benedictus from Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man – which included a bass drum loud enough to make the audience, choir and orchestra alike jump out of their seats!

Congratulations to everyone involved in this inaugural event; it was a big undertaking and we hope there will be many more to follow.

During the lockdown and ongoing school closures of Spring and Summer 2020 some of my pupils from the Music Clubs we run at Balfour Infant School continued their instrumental learning with Kate online, via Skype.

Usually the children would perform a Summer Concert in the school hall – an event which showcases to their families how much they have learned during the course of the year.

This year, since the school was closed, we put together an online concert; we hope you enjoy it!

On Friday 13th March the Balfour Infants Keyboard Club were due to perform “The Paratrooper” – a piece they had been working hard on all term. This was to be their first performance in a school Celebration Assembly too, so we were all very excited!

Unfortunately due to the ‘social distancing’ required by the COVID-19 pandemic the assembly was cancelled, and the school was closed at the end of that day until further notice.

Fortunately however, we filmed the performance that the Keyboard Club were going to make at our club session the day before – we were a few members down due to the pandemic, but here are Ethan, Amreen, Mariam, Poppy and Leo performing “The Paratrooper”.

Both the Recorder Club and Balfour Buzzers performed at today’s Celebration Assembly to share with the other children and staff the pieces we have been working on this term. Bravo to all our performers – for Austin this was his very first performance, well done Austin, and well done everyone!!

Balfour Buzzers enjoyed playing Jingle Bells in the school’s Celebration Assembly today – a lovely way to wrap up the term before the Christmas break. Well done team!