This week’s blog post is coming to you a little later than planned, due to a hectic week getting on top of us and delaying the writing process! Our regular catch-up day this week was taken up enrolling all of our new Students (more on this later) and so we’re a little behind. Brand new start tomorrow, though, and we’re hoping to be a little more organised!

So, our February enrolment was taking place this week. We had a total of 26 new Students walk through our doors this week – more than we’ve ever had in one enrolment session before. There are new Piano, Singing, Violin, Guitar – pretty much everything that we offer! – Students, which means there are a lot of new faces across the board for all of our Teachers.

Speaking of which, we welcomed two new Teachers to Sweet Symphony this week. Niamh (Singing) and Mathilde (Piano) both taught their first lessons with us this week. We’ve had glowing reports back from our Students about their first lessons with their new Teachers, which is lovely to hear. We think both Niamh and Mathilde are going to fit in very well with us here at Sweet Symphony. Both Teachers have a few spaces available throughout the week (although, these are becoming fewer on a daily basis at the moment!), so we’d urge anyone thinking of taking up lessons to get in touch with us sooner rather than later to secure their spot.

On a personal note, away from the Studio we went to see a performance of War Horse at the Sunderland Empire on Wednesday night. We always love a chance to go to the theatre, but due to the after-hours shift patterns of a Music Teacher, we often don’t get the opportunity to go. We’d seen the film of War Horse years ago when it first came out, and had heard that the stage production was very good, but we were completely blown away. At first, the idea of watching a “puppet” on stage seemed a little strange, and your eyes tended to focus on the actors operating the horse. But after a while these actors almost “disappeared” and you felt you were looking at a real live horse on screen. We swear that, at times, you could even see the horse breathing! The play was fantastic, with excellent acting throughout. There were laughs, cries of surprise and definitely a few tears shed before the end of the show. Quite rightly, the cast received a standing ovation at the end. If you haven’t already got tickets to see this show, we’d highly recommend it! For more information on the show, click here.

Saturday Student Focus

So again, we’re a little late with our Saturday Student Focus but we hope you won’t mind too much! The entry box is getting fuller by the day, but remember – if your name isn’t picked out this week it means your card is still in the box, so there’s always a chance we’ll be featuring you next week! This week’s Saturday Student is…

Susan B. (Guitar/Piano)

Susan is one of our adult Students. After learning to play the Guitar with us for two years, she recently decided to switch instruments and turn her hand to the Piano. Her favourite piece so far has been Good King Wenceslas, and Susan writes that the thing she likes most about her lessons is it provides her with some “me time” – very important for her, as she works as a critical care nurse and has done for the past 18 years. We can imagine that “me time” is very precious to you, then, Susan!

So Susan is now in with a chance to win a month’s free tuition. The first draw will be taking place at the end of March and everyone who has been featured up to that point will be entered in the draw. You’ve got to be in it to win it, so if you fancy being in with a chance to win, simply fill in a slip and pop it in our Focus box in the Waiting Room next time you’re in for a lesson! Then check our Facebook page each Saturday to see if your name has been chosen.

To see more of our Saturday Student Focus posts and to read about everything else happening at Sweet Symphony, check out our other blog posts here on our website.