Falklands Entry Wins National Music Competition Prize

A 19-strong all-girl choir from the Falkland Islands has beaten off several thousand entrants to win a top prize at the Youth Music Awards, a national competition organised by National Foundation for Youth Music (Youth Music) in the UK.

The Falkland Islands video entry has been awarded "Highly Commended" in the Strange Oceans award category for a performance of the theme song "Drop in the Ocean" in the most unusual or innovative venue. The choir, called "Vocalise", has received the prize of a Roland F90 digital piano, generously sponsored by Roland UK (www.roland.co.uk).

The Awards form part of the Youth Music Song for Youth Initiative and the judges included: Tolga Kashif, the composer; Christina Coker, Chief Executive, Youth Music Organisation; and Youth Music Trustees Gavin Henderson, Richard Stilgoe and The Duchess of Kent.

Youth Music distributed a Song for Youth education pack to nearly 10,000 schools and groups and invited them to enter these awards. In addition information was displayed on its web site. There were 12 entries short-listed in the Strange Oceans category.

Judge Christina Coker comments: "The Falkland Islands entry stood out for its individuality and appeal. Not only did the choir sing well, but their video entry contained wonderful imagery of the Islands and its associations with the sea that had us all transfixed. The choir shows great pride in their homeland and well deserves this special award. We wish them all good luck for the future." This was the southern-most entry submitted for the competition. MORE/ …

Shirley Adams-Leach, music teacher at the Falkland Islands Community School and at Stanley Infant / Junior School, first saw the project advertised in Music Teacher publication. She enrolled the help of Robin Fryatt, who works for British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) in the Islands – and is a school parent – to film and edit the "Vocalise" entry. BFBS kindly leant some of the scenic and ocean faring shots from its image library.

"This is the first time we have entered an award like this so we are thrilled to have got such recognition!" comments Mrs Adams-Leach. "More and more young people are taking up music in the Islands and this prize will give them an even greater incentive to get on and do well." Members of the Falkland Islands Community School choir, "Vocalise", range in age from 12 – 15 years.

ENDS

• In the Falkland Islands schooling is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 – 16 years.

• There is a Primary and Secondary School in Stanley and four small settlement schools on large farms. Other rural pupils in more remote areas are taught by travelling teachers.

• The education system is based on United Kingdom methods and examinations.

• Grants are available to students who wish to pursue A-level, Vocational and Higher Education. The Islands have built links with several colleges in the UK, including Peter Symonds' College in Winchester and Chichester College.

• As many as 15 students have taken GCSE music at one time in recent years (40% of a group year).

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• Three music enthusiasts from the community teach piano accordion, drum-kit and trumpet at Falkland Islands Community School in Stanley. Some 30 students take up lessons in these instruments and also piano, flute and violin, which are taught by Shirley Adams-Leach, Teacher of Music at Falkland Islands Community School and at Stanley Infant / Junior School.

The Ministry of Defence and Falkland Islands Government worked together to air freight the piano to the Islands using the regular RAF Tristar service. The Roland digital piano had to arrive in Stanley in time for a ‘mock up’ awards ceremony at 6.30pm on March 20, 2003 that was hosted by HE The Governor Howard Pearce and attended by some sixty guests.

Robin Fryatt, BFBS, filmed this event and edited highlights were then flown back to Youth Music in time for the actual awards ceremony on April 8, 2003. The film includes interviews with several choir members as well as the Islands music teacher and competition leader, Shirley Adams-Leach. HIGHLIGHTS TO BE SHOWN AT AWARDS CEREMONY.

Youth Music was set up in 1999 with £30m of Lottery funding, delivered through the Arts Council of England. This was endorsed in July 2001 by a further £30m to allow Youth Music to continue its work until 2005. By the end of 2005, the Organisation aims to have reached more than three million children and young people and their wider communities.

Youth Music provides music-making opportunities for children and young people up to the age of 18 who mainly live in areas of social and economic need, targeting those who would otherwise not have the opportunity.

Through its Youth Music Action Zones, Open Programmes, Partnership Programmes and Special Initiatives, Youth Music aims to develop and implement a UK-wide strategy to support youth music-making that will:

• Establish a legacy of music-making opportunities;
• Improve the overall standards of music-making;
• Champion the value of music-making – proving that music has a positive effect on children and young people;
• Establish music-making opportunities as a force for regeneration in communities.

Part of the Youth Music Song for Youth initiative, the three categories in these national awards were:

Strange Oceans – in which the Falkland Islands won highly commended. The main prize is a performance at the National Youth Orchestra’s Easter concert at the Barbican.

Make it your Own – Goes to the organisation, group or school that creates the most compelling arrangement, unusual style or up-to-the-minute remix of Drop in the Ocean. The winner will be awarded Sting’s Fender Guitar.

My Ocean Journey – Offers awards for different age groups for the best prose or poetry of thoughts, ideas, feeling and dreams experienced while performing the ‘Drop in the Ocean’ song.

The awards were sponsored by Roland UK.

"Vocalise" is the Falkland Islands Community School Choir that consists of some nineteen singers aged between 12 – 15 years. At the time of entry in 2002, this was an all-girl choir, but since then it has not only doubled in size but also, for the first time, several male students have joined.

The Youth Music entry included: Alex Cripps, Shorrona Thomas, Maria Fe Scanes from Year 10; Lizzie Sanders and Jody Poole, Year Nine; Lizzie Newton, Leila Crowe, Megan Middleton, Christine Ross, Tessa Clingham, Emily Hancox, Kirsty Livermore and Sara Short of Year Eight and Hannah Arthur-Almond, Helen Davies, Jane Goss, Carole-Anne Goss, Karen Minto and Nadia Smith of Year Seven.

[NOTE: All students have now moved up a year due to change of school year in January 2003.]

• 2002 marked the 10^th anniversary of Falkland Islands Community School.
• November 2002 marked the first ‘SAMA ’82 Pilgrimage to the Falkland Islands’ involving over 200 veterans of the Falklands War, and related members of the South Atlantic Medal Association ’82 (SAMA ’82).
• In October 2002, the School held a Variety Show to mark its anniversary and the proceeds were donated to the SAMA ’82 Pilgrimage. It was agreed that the ‘Drop in the Ocean’ Youth Music song would be the Show’s opening number – and it was dedicated to the veterans.
• Verse Three of ‘Drop in the Ocean’ begins: "Some have died for a wish to be free, some at war, some for no crime or reason". To the students, these words enforced the link with SAMA ’82 and the ideas for the video and their interpretation of the song snowballed from there.
• The Europa tallship appears in the video as it was in Stanley the week of filming the video and helped to highlight the Navy connections and seafaring history of the Islands.
• Shots of the penguins and other Falklands wildlife were included to complete the picture and provide some "lighter moments" with choir on the beach. Some ocean scenes were filmed in South Georgia and provided courtesy of the BFBS library.
• The choir noticed that, on the map, the Falkland Islands resembles a drop in the ocean.
• The video entry submitted is intended as an interpretation of the song.

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Credits go to ‘Vocalise’, Shirley Adams-Leach, Robin Fryatt and also to Martin Cant and to Graham Didlick who gave up their time to provide sound and lighting for the video and also for all the School shows in Stanley.

Shirley has been Music Teacher in the Falkland Islands for the last four years, at both the Falkland Islands Community School and at the Infant / Junior School in Stanley.

Born and brought up in Aberdeen, Scotland, Shirley trained to be a teacher at the College of Education at Hilton in Aberdeen. After graduating in 1983, she spent five years as a peripatetic teacher of class music in eight primary schools before taking up post in the Falkland Islands as the first qualified Music Teacher, to help establish Music as a curriculum subject.

Shirley returned to the UK in 1991 and taught as Head of Music in Gairloch High School in Scotland and then as Head of Music in Dene Magna Community School in the Forest of Dean, near Gloucester before returning to the Falkland Islands in 1999.

Currently she lives in Stanley, the Islands’ capital, with her husband Nigel.

Vicky (18) was awarded a GCSE A* grade in Music at Falkland Islands Community School in Stanley and is the first student to go on to study A-Level music. Like many Falkland Islands students, Vicky is now studying for her A-Levels at Peter Symonds Sixth Form College in Winchester.

Amongst her other subjects, she is preparing for her Grade Eight piano exam whilst playing in College Orchestras with her violin.

Vicky was born in Whitby, Yorkshire (twin town to Stanley, the Islands’ capital) and moved to the Falkland Islands with her parents and younger sister in August 2000, when her father took up the post of Crown Counsel. Her elder brother is studying at university in the UK, but sister Alex is following in her musical footsteps, currently completing her GCSE Music coursework on flute and recorder. Alex is a member of the all girl group ‘Vocalise’ and appears in the Islands’ ‘Drop in the Ocean’ video entry.

April 8, 2003