Supporting 20 talented students to study music

Thank you to everyone who has supported our appeal. Through your generosity we have been able to consider a number of students to be supported for the scheme, to start lessons in September. We would like to introduce you to a few of them:

Kathy

First up is Kathy, a young Ugandan girl of 11 years, currently studying at Kampala Parents School where she is in Primary 6. She lives with her mother in Kampala, but her father stays in Busia. She was drawn to learning the violin because the sound it produces makes her happy. She applied for a bursary because she believes she has the talent and wants to develop it further. Her mother is a stay home parent and they do not have the resources for her to continue music lessons. Having started the violin, she was doing well, was a motivated student and was making good progress, but was about to drop out due to a lack of funds. When applying for a bursary she said  “I believe if I get the bursary, my talent will not be wasted. I hope to learn, and become a professional at the violin and one day return the favour by training others.”

Edison   

Edison hails from Seeta, Mukono and comes from a humble family and started studying music at the age of 16 in church and also at school, which enabled him to develop musically and professionally. He is passionate about singing and researching into music, performing and teaching. Edison, who is 32, applied for a bursary in order to become a better player and become good enough to teach others. His long term goal is to contribute to the growth of KMS by becoming a teacher and also teaching music in his community.

Kristen

Kristen is a 13 year old Ugandan girl, third born in a family of 4 and is currently in grade 8 at Bethel School. She lives with her mother, a stay at home mum. She and her sister Kathy, had some lessons in the holiday, but such is the situation at home that they were unable to carry on with lessons, in spite of a keenness to do so.  Her teacher (Shafic) found her to be incredibly self motivated, passionate, practiced hard and as such made quick progress. She applied for a bursary because she has a passion for music and her mother cannot afford to pay for her music lessons. She said “If I am granted the bursary, I know that I will learn to be open and this will boost my confidence. I would also love to perform and share my talent with others.”

John Paul

John Paul, aged 24 years, lives in Makerere, Kikoni in Kampala and  comes from a humble, simple and hardworking background. As a child, his step father taught him how to play the Guitar and this inspired me to love music even more.  He loves music because it is a way of communicating, and always felt that music is his calling, that he was meant to do. Since the age of 14 years he has worked to earn a living, after his senior 6 he had no means of paying fees. He applied for a bursary at KMS as paying for lessons was rather challengeing. He had set his mind to making music as a career and felt that in order to achive this he would need to have consistent lessons. He recently sat his Grade 5 Guitar ABRSM Practical exams in June 2017 and scored  130/150 (Distinction). He is hoping that with this additional help he will be able to achieve higher ABRSM grades going as far as the Diploma. Having not managed to get to University, he is putting his entire focus into studying music. He would also like to learn other instruments apart from the Guitar so as to be  a more diverse and rounded musician. “After I have achieved all of this, I would like to give back to Kampala Music School and society in general by helping others utilise their abilities.”

We look forward to telling you how they are getting on, along with others, in our next report – Thank you for your continued support to Kampala Music School – the centre of excellence in Uganda for classical and jazz music