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11 February 2020
This year, it will not only be talented students taking centre stage at The Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech & Drama (7 – 14 March), but also Bedford Girls’ School (BGS) staff, who will be playing a Grade 1 piece on an instrument they haven’t played before in the Bedfordshire Festival Class 150 class on Wednesday 12 March.
By stepping far outside of their comfort zones, the staff performers are demonstrating to our students the importance of life-long learning and highlighting a willingness to take on new challenges. Instruments will include bassoon, flute, piano, violin clarinet, cello, French horn, tenor saxophone and oboe.
The team are also raising funds Tibbs Dementia Foundation (TDF), a Bedford based charity who offer a wide range of activities, both for people with all stages of dementia and for those who support them. One of these groups is called Music for Memory, where people with dementia and their carers can sing, dance and laugh, with the added benefit of music aiding memory and communication.
The TDF was selected due to the support it has given BGS Visiting Music Teacher, Mrs Banning, who sadly lost her husband to early onset dementia in 2012. Mrs Banning said: “During this incredibly difficult time, Music for Memory was an invaluable source of support for us. Like most people with dementia, even as he began to lose the ability to communicate in other ways, Raymond could still communicate through music because the part of the brain, which stores our musical memories and processes music is often unaffected by dementia.”
Feel free to come and support the performers at 6pm on Wednesday 12 March in the Harpur Suite, Corn Exchange. Any support you can give the charity, would be greatly appreciated, sponsor here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bgsclass150
Pictured BGS staff, some of whom are performing:
Lorraine Banning, Visiting Music Teacher – Cello, Emma Mackenzie, Marketing and Development Officer – Piano, Ben Atkins, Music Teacher – flute, Kit Davies, Computer Science Teacher – Clarinet and Julia McKinnell, Music Teacher – Tenor Sax.
