Newsletter No 1

Dear Member

Thank you for supporting West Suffolk Young Musician with your kind donation.

We hope you enjoyed the Finalists’ Concert as much as we and the performers did. We have been delighted by the positive response we have had from our audience.

We have called this Newsletter No 1, but it may be the only one you receive in this format, as we hope in future you will be able to communicate to us via our web-site, the new PO Box address or, during competition times, using the voicemail box as above.

So, our exciting news for ‘Newsletter No 1’ is that we are delighted to be able to announce that the renowned double bassist Dominic Seldis has agreed to become our new patron and support us in future years. He is currently Principal Double Bass with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, but has also appeared on TV as an adjudicator in the BBC Young Musician of the Year and ‘Maestro’ competitions. Most recently he was seen as an interviewer during the televised First Night of the Proms. The fact also that he hails from Bury St. Edmunds has convinced us that he is the right man for the role!

We thought you would like to know how your membership subscription will be used. During a twelve month cycle of the WSYM competition many costs are incurred. These regularly include: hire of venues, piano hire and tuning, adjudicators’ fees, publicity, PO Box address (coming soon!) web-site design and up-keep and the ‘Making Music’ subscription.

As a WSYM Member we would like you to feel that you will be able to have your say. Those of you who have followed oue progress us over the years will know that we have always listened to and considered our supporters’ suggestions and have often be able to act upon them to improve the smooth running of the event. You will also be invited to the Annual General Meeting, the first of which will be held in the latter part of the autumn term 2010. This will be at the end of our first year of ‘going it alone’ and our move away from the safe umbrella of the Suffolk Sinfonia administration. We will also keep you informed of the heats and Finalists’ Concert date in the hope that you will want to come a long and show your continued support to our talented young musicians.

You will probably not hear from us for a while now, as things will go quiet as we reflect on this past year and work towards our launch of the 2010 competition. Do feel free though to contact us as above.

Many thanks again, on behalf of our young musicians, for your valued support,

Neil Carlson - Chairman.