Bedales Performs Concert for Children’s Charity

Bedales Performs Concert for Children’s Charity

29/11/2010

On the 24th November, 130 members of Bedales’ Orchestras, Concert Band and Choirs gave a poignant concert in honour of Saint Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music and Musicians. This annual Cecilia Concert has, for the last 12 years, also been performed in support of Cecily’s Fund; a charity named after Bedalian student, Cecily Eastwood, who tragically died in a car crash while on her gap year teaching in Zambia 13 years ago. Cecily’s parents set up the charity in their daughter’s memory to help educate Zambian children orphaned by AIDS.

The programme, performed in the atmospheric ‘Quad’ at Bedales and in the presence of Cecily’s parents, Basil and Alison, featured major works by Shostakovich  (Festive Overture), Haydn (Symphony No. 104), Britten (A Simple Symphony), Pachelbel (Kanon in D) and Mozart (excerpts from the Requiem).  Shorter choral works by Samuel Sebastian Wesley (Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace and Wash me throughly) and numbers from the Yale Song Book were performed by the Chamber Singers and the Bedales Barbershop Boys.

The evening’s collection raised £1,400, bringing the total collected from this and previous Cecilia Concerts to over £11,000 for the charity. Cecily’s Fund enables over 8,500 orphaned and vulnerable children to go to school in Kitwe in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, and near the capital, Lusaka. It also enables some of the young people to train as teachers and to instruct others in the running of ‘peer health education’ sessions, passing on vital health information to help the next generation stay safe from HIV. The Fund makes a commitment to support each child throughout their education to make a real difference to their lives and future prospects.

Commenting on the Cecilia Concert, Keith Budge, Headmaster of Bedales Schools, said: “The combination of beautiful music performed in support of a very worthy cause in memory of a wonderful Old Bedalian is a moving and special experience not only for Bedalians but for the wider community. We were inspired by Cecily’s father who spoke about his daughter and the charity. It was a pleasure to enjoy the talents of our many student-musicians who, working under the direction of Nick Gleed, Keir Rowe, Will Lithgow and James Thomas, filled the Quad with such uplifting and touching music.”
For more information on Cecily’s Fund please visit www.cecilysfund.org.

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