Three small rooms were knocked together to build a new music room, with funds provided by Musequality
Music Projects
Planting the seeds of success
Tender Talents Magnet School, Kampala, Uganda
Tender Talents is a school for about 450 children aged 12 to 18 in Kasangati, near Kampala. Set up in 1999 by Frank and Brenda Katoola, it offers a rigorous academic curriculum along with special arts training in cultural dance, music, drama, visual art and sculpting. The music programme was the first major project to be supported by Musequality.
The school’s pupils come from the poorest section of the community. A high proportion have lost parents and other family members to AIDS, some come from single-parent families, others are refugees from the Northern Conflict (a regional war that has rumbled on for over a decade).
The school receives no direct state funding but relies on donations, bartering and a small amount from fees from the few parents who can afford to pay.
The first move in setting up the music programme was to acquire and equip a music room. Musequality provided significant start-up funding to pay for the refurbishment of a dilapidated hut. Four rooms were knocked into one and the school now has a rehearsal studio and appropriate storage space. We also provided a piano, three keyboards, 13 guitars, 70 recorders, drums, several endingidis (traditional Ugandan one-string fiddles) and books. This initial donation also included staff training.
Musequality is now funding a choral training programme, the Tender Talents Chorus, involving up to 55 children who receive vocal coaching and instrumental tuition on piano, recorder and guitar, and learn music theory. Teachers come from nearby Kampala Music School.
Public performances are an important part of the project’s work. For many of the children, the experience of performing is a first step away from the margins of society towards a future where they have a contribution to make. It also represents an opportunity for their audiences to see the children as an asset rather than as a problem. The choir’s first public performance was a concert for Eva Luise Köhler, then the First Lady of the German Republic, during her visit to Uganda in February 2008.
Progress has been impressive and high standards are being achieved; for example, 14 children passed Grade 4 or 5 ABRSM exams in 2010. Supporters of the music programme include the North London Collegiate Junior and Portsmouth Grammar schools, which have raised money, and Stentor Violins who donated 14 instruments. Jane Ingamells, Head of Strings at Portsmouth Grammar School, recently went out to the school to introduce a strings programme using the Stentor violins. More.
Musequality and Frank Katoola are currently discussing the possibilities of securing ongoing funding from other partners in the UK and elsewhere to ensure the sustainability of the Tender Talents music programme.
Following her visit, Tender Talents head Frank Katoola wrote to Jane Ingamells:
‘It was really wonderful having you here. The children are still excited about the violins. Brenda and I would like to thank you for the generous gesture of offering your self to our cause and dream.’
