Local students to perform at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall

Coombeshead Academy in Newton Abbot, part of Education South West, hosted a regional festival for Music for Youth at their theatre earlier this term.

Music for Youth is a national youth music charity working with young people aged 25 and under across the UK.  Their vision is to ensure that every young person in the UK can achieve their musical potential by performing the music they love.  They believe that music, and the chance to participate in high-quality musical activities, should be open to every young person. 

Coombeshead Academy’s soul band were invited to play at the festival, alongside the Devon County Orchestras,  Devon County Jazz Ensembles and many more different local groups.

The school’s soul band has now been invited to perform at Music for Youth’s National Festival which is being held at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and seats over two thousand people.  They are the only group from Devon which has been asked to perform and if they get through to the next stage then they will perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London!

The school houses the CREATE Creative Arts Academy, which is home to specialist studios and teachers offering learning in an exciting range of creative courses.

 Helen Coulson, Head of School at Coombeshead Academy said:

“I am over the moon that our soul band has been asked to perform at Music for Youth’s National Festival at the Birmingham Symphony Hall.  I am so proud of all the students in the band and know they will do Coombeshead proud on the day!”

Matthew Shanks, CEO of Education South West said:

“Everyone at Education South West wants to offer their congratulations to the Coombeshead Academy soul band for this fantastic achievement.  At Education South West we believe in offering a broad and balanced curriculum and as well as traditional academic subjects, we champion the value of the arts and so are delighted to see music playing such an important role at Coombeshead Academy.”