The Immanuel Music School had 96 members in 2015 (124
members in 2014). To be a member you have to attend rehearsals at least ten
times.
30 of the children have had lessons through the Immanuel Day
Nursery (Kindergarten). The older students take lessons after school in the
afternoons and evenings.17 of them come from the area close to Home of Praise,
46 students receive their lessons at Immanuel Church and 1 student studies at Samrong Lutheran Church. 24 of the older students started to play violin in Immanuel Day Nursery.
46 students receive their lessons at Immanuel Church and 1 student studies at Samrong Lutheran Church. 24 of the older students started to play violin in Immanuel Day Nursery.
In addition to offering free music lessons to children and youths
in the deprived area surrounding Immanuel Church and the Home of Praise
Community Center, Immanuel Music School also wishes to expand the work to other
areas and churches in Bangkok and eventually to other parts of Thailand.
At present two of our full time students come from other parts of
the country: Chiang Rai in North and Buriram in North East Thailand. Immanuel
Music School has also been teaching in Samrong Church once a week (1 student
attending regularly and some other kids attending occasionally) and 4 violin
students playing in the Immanuel
Orchestra attend Ruampraporn Church. At present we have not managed to
find time to go there and teach them individually.
2015 has been a year where we have tried to emphasise a higher
level of teaching quality and artistic excellence. Sinsupa Pantawong (Fai) a violin
student at the school was accepted to study her Bachelors in Music
Performance (violin) at Mahidol College of Music in May 2015.
Reehpaw Saenthawidet (Fiw) has been a full time scholarship
student at Immanuel Music School for the third year. From February 2015
Narongthep Somphorn (Best) and from June 2015 Anongnath Duangwong (Ice) have
also been accepted as full time scholarship students at Immanuel Music School.
musical studies. The students also get the opportunity to practice what
they learn by performing for and teaching the younger students. This becomes an
example which we hope the younger children will want to emulate.
The scholarship program gives the students a well rounded musical education which can prepare them for advanced
The scholarship program gives the students a well rounded musical education which can prepare them for advanced
Many of the most eager students in the Immanuel have attended
even more lessons and rehearsals in 2015. This not only includes orchestra
rehearsals but also sectionals, individual lessons (violin, viola, cello,
guitar, ukulele and piano) and music theory lessons.
On the other hand the total number of students attending Immanuel
Music School this year has dropped.
In 2015 19 students (2014: 12 students) have come between 116-195
times, (3-6 times a week)
16 students (2014: 29 students) have come between 40-100
times (1-2 times a week).
35 students (2014: 48 students) have come between 20-39
times during 2015.
26 students (2014: 34 students) have come between 10-19
times (too little to make much progress)
The age of the students attending Immanuel Music School in 2015
ranges from 5 to 24. 10 students are aged between 19-24 years old, 5 were high
school students, 18 were secondary school students, 43 were primary school
students and 20 were kindergarten students.
Immanuel Music School begins to feel like home for many of our
students. When they attend Immanuel Church or Home of Praise for music lessons
many also join other activities like English lessons, Boys Brigade, Camps and Sunday school. 23 of the
members in Immanuel Music School, 2015 have been baptized.
Music Staff at Immanuel Music School:
We are very thankful for all the time, effort and knowledge given
to our students during 2015!
Jonathan Mann, famous orchestra conductor from the UK
began as the Artistic Director for the Immanuel Orchestras from 1st June, 2015. Before this he
had worked as a guest conductor for three concerts. He has given much of his
time to the Immanuel Music School free of charge and has managed to improve the
orchestra’s playing to such a
high level of quality. This has led to people in the wider Bangkok community
noticing this exciting project and wanting to attend Immanuel Orchestra concerts. It has also
led to people in the Bangkok Arts community wanting to help the project and
collaborate with our young musicians.
Varin Artvilai (Ton) has been a full time teacher and
conductor in Immanuel Music School since June 2015. Prior to this he was paid
part time for several months. Ton completed his Bachelors in Performance
(Violin) at Mahidol College
of Music in April 2014. He started to learn violin at the Immanuel Music School
and at Home of Praise when he was young child. During 2015 he has taken on
greater responsibility for the music school in general, the organisation and
training of the orchestras, individual teaching and music theory lessons. He
has also organized many small performances for our young musicians.
Solveig Meling
Johannessen started Immanuel Music School together with Dag, her
husband in the year 2000. Due to sick leave and more administrative work she
has not been able to teach as much as she previously could at the Immanuel
Music School. Because of this you can see from the statistics that this has
affected what the music school can offer small kids particularly the new
beginners at the Immanuel Day Nursery.
Tanutt
Tanavoravongsa (Tong) has been teaching piano in Immanuel every
Monday for 3-5 hours per week since 22nd June 2015. This is a
valuable skill we can offer our students.
Tapalin Charoensook (Soi) has been teaching Fiw cello
lessons free of charge for the whole year.
Saara Nordblom has been helping out occasionally teaching
cello students during 2015.
Scholarship
students Fiw and Best have been helping to teach individual
lessons the whole year as did Fai the first 4 months before she started
at Mahidol. Our other scholarship student Ice has also helped a lot over the past seven months.
Kiattisak Boonman (Man) is the youth worker at the Home of
Praise Community Centre. During 2015 he helped the music school by teaching
ukulele and guitar.
Activities in Immanuel Music School during 2015:
For the first time the orchestras had 3 major concerts during one
year. This could not been achieved without our two excellent conductors
Jonathan Mann and Varin Artvilai and much appreciated help from the Bangkok
Opera Foundation. We were also supported by other talented young musicians and
various teachers and students from Bangkok’s international school community. It
was a very special experience to have the opportunity to perform with violinist Sittichai Pengcharoen as
soloist for Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5 together with the Immanuel
Orchestra at our concert in October.
A special thanks also to composer/double bassist Stephen Maniam
who travelled all the way from Malaysia just to play with Immanuel Orchestra
for our Christmas Concert. At that concert we also had a guest choir
performing: the Siam Orpheus Chamber
Choir. This was an exciting opportunity for Maestro Somtow Sucharitkul
to collaborate with the orchestra and choir on excerpts from Handel’s Messiah.
Thank you everyone!
Immanuel Music School also arranged one smaller solo concert and
has participated in 8 services (5 at Immanuel, 2 at Soi 50 and 1 at Baan Phu Waan). Smaller groups,
often string quartets, have performed at 2 weddings, 1 funeral, 1 DN
graduation, Christmas celebrations in HOP and Immanuel, 7 different kinds of
parties/seminars and 9 private concerts at Immanuel Church for visiting groups
to raise money and awareness for the music school.
On February 9th, 2015 singers from the Immanuel Music School got
the opportunity to join the massed choir
for Bangkok Opera Foundation’s performance of Mahler Symphony No. 2. One student from
Immanuel Music School was allowed to join the high quality Siam Sinfonietta
Youth Orchestra and many more of our students have had the opportunity to
listen to their concerts throughout 2015. We also have enjoyed attending three
of Bangkok Operas productions.
During 2015 Immanuel Music School also got free tickets and went
to two of the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra subscription concerts. We also
got invitations from the Bangkok
Symphony Orchestra but sadly could not find time to go this year.
At the beginning of 2015 the Immanuel Junior Orchestra was
established. The orchestra has been a great success and it performed at all three Music for Life concerts and
also at many other small performances. Many of the kids joining from the start
had never played in an orchestra before but they have grown both in confidence
and ability during the year.
Both senior and junior orchestras have had 2 weekly rehearsals
during the year with some kids joining both orchestras. On Friday’s there have
been sectionals or string quartets rehearsals and on Saturday’s music theory
classes. Individual lessons are given throughout the week at Immanuel Church.
Music classes and violin lessons in Immanuel Day Nursery and Home of Praise
have normally been given 1-2 days per week.
In April 2015 both orchestras went to rehearsal camps. The junior
orchestra visited Pranburi and the senior orchestra went to Kanchanaburi. This
is a great opportunity for the students to bond socially and also spend more
time working on the music to higher levels in an environment they may not get
to experience often.
Economy:
By the establishment of “Music for Life” the Immanuel Music School was expecting to receive
a much higher income than before and therefore we raised our goals in what we
can achieve for our students. Employing our first full time music teacher was
necessary and it has been a huge success.
It is unsure if the music school could have survived 2015 without this
investment. From June we have regularly had a piano teacher coming to teach
once a week which has also been very useful in furthering the skills of our
students. We also encouraged some of our most talented students to apply for
higher music education even if they didn’t have the necessary financial support
from their families to pay the expensive fees. The music school has paid them
small scholarships so they could stay in Immanuel Music School full time to get
prepared for higher music education. One of them was ready to enter university
in May 2015. Two others will start in 2016.
The “Music for
Life” project founded and directed by Dag Johannessen developed well through
the first half year of 2015. A steering committee was established, a Facebook
campaign and lunch held and a Gala dinner and sponsor package planned. However,
sadly Dag had to go on a sick leave so much of the planned work was left
incomplete or postponed.
Despite this setback because we performed excellent concerts, made group visits and regular
provided our supported with news on Immanuel Music School’s Facebook page new
groups of people discovered the quality and importance of the work being done
at Immanuel Music School. We received many new supporters and sponsors during
2015 and managed to cover all the following expenses in Immanuel Music School.
Music teacher’s salary: 285,675 Baht
Fees for applying and to do auditions to university: 15,700 Baht
Scholarship University: 203,822 Baht
Camp: 61,079 Baht
Concerts: 110,967 Baht
Sheet music: 17,168 Baht
Repairing of instruments, included new bows: 23,730 Baht
Food: 32,770 Baht
Fees: 9,735 Baht
Expenses regarding Music for Life Campaign: 5,600 Baht
Travelling expenses: 9,339 Baht
Rewards: 450 Baht
Total: 940,148 Baht
During 2015 Immanuel Lutheran Church has let Immanuel Music
School use several rooms in the church for rehearsals almost every day for
free. We really appreciate it. Thank you also for your patience regarding so
many kids going in and out of the doors all the year but we hope the music
school also provides you with a lot of joy!
Immanuel Music School has also received following donations of
instruments:
5 violins, 1 small
cello, one double bass, one electric guitar and one drum kit.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Immanuel Music
School/Music for Life by giving of your valuable time, finances, instruments or supported in any other
way. We could not have done it without you!
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