News from the IAPSOT, Independent Association of Preparatory Schools Orchestra Trust

In view of the present economic climate, the Trustees of the IAPS Orchestra Trust decided last November that courses would cease to operate and that from 1 September 2009 the Trust would become a grant-giving body. That decision was taken with great regret. However, it was felt that retaining remaining reserves and making good use of them was a far wiser action than seeing them disappear altogether. The aim would be to give needy children financial support to help them to develop their musical potential.

Should there be a demand from many schools to re-introduce courses in the future, then this would be pursued with vigour and enthusiasm.

Information about the Orchestra Trust's grant-giving role will appear on a revamped website in the autumn.

The leaves have fallen in the gale

Paddy Heazell looks back on 37 glorious musical years and looks forward to a new role for the IAPS Orchestra Trust

During the first or possibly second year of its existence, Benjamin Britten was listening to a rehearsal of the IAPS Orchestra. The strings were playing many of the right notes but not always at the same time. Gently, Britten said that it sounded like autumn leaves waving in the breeze. The news that the IAPS Orchestra Trust has had to abandon the great enterprise launched with Britten's inspired blessing nearly 40 years ago shows that autumnal breezes have given way to the gales of winter. The leaves have fluttered to the ground and the concert held at Snape Maltings on July 20th 2008 was the 37th. And last.

The IAPS music courses were born in the revolution in the 1960s curriculum. The arts, generally, were relative Cinderellas in many, if not most, of our schools. Four redoubtable and progressive IAPS visionaries decided that in music, at least, this had to change. Raymond Cooper, head of The Hall, Hampstead, Arthur Harrison, a major IAPS figure, Robin Wilson, from Taverham Hall, the man with musical expertise, and the 1972 IAPS chairman Donald Sewell, head of Old Buckenham Hall School, were the founding fathers of what became the IAPS Orchestra Trust.

The long-lasting relationship with the Snape Maltings concert hall stemmed from Harrison's links with the Aldeburgh Festival. He was a close friend of Britten, Peter Pears, and Imogen Holst. It also helped that Britten had been a (precocious) pupil at Old Buckenham Hall when it was in Lowestoft.

The state of music in independent schools was far from assured. Children were frequently taught viola by a violin teacher, or double bass by a 'cellist, often on sub-standard instruments. The IAPS courses gave young musicians the chance to be coached by professional specialists, especially when some of these were to be musicians of international repute.

Another major benefit was for the children to play in a big orchestra or band was the sheer thrill of ensemble playing. Ted Amos, one of the inspiring personalities behind the IAPS Orchestra, who would remind everybody that making music was the finest team sport there is. Everybody is important. There are no winners and no losers; the benefits of learning to work as part of a team are invaluable. The objective was to raise the standards by bringing together the best of players. The IAPS music courses have played a most significant part in my professional life ever since the very first concert at Snape in 1972, when I had a modest role as luggage porter. Britten attended with Pears, whom I soon invited to become our patron. Imogen Holst was there too, listening to the first - and last - performance of her Iken Fanfare.

I can claim to be the only person to have attended every one of the 37 IAPS orchestra concerts. Many of my recollections involve courses other than the prestige main orchestra course at Snape. A letter from a proud parent following a Jazz Improvisation Course, run by Professor Scott Stroman, gives a real sense that the trust's work was truly worthwhile: "My son had a brilliant time, evident in the dimples in his cheeks which appear with huge smiles. I can't explain what he got from the course. I only know that he is richer inside, which will stay with him for a long time. The atmosphere was magic."

The function of the Orchestra Trust is going to change. There will, of course, be real sadness, particularly for those who have been organising and running the courses, who feel that closure is a poor reward for their loyal and devoted service. Yet, perhaps, we may all claim with due pride that the trust's original purpose has been well and truly achieved.

Is there an IAPS school that would admit that music does not matter, or has no part in a good and balanced curriculum? Is there a senior school that is indifferent to the standard of music-making it achieves? I believe that the trust may claim to have fulfilled its principal task here. In many ways, it was a pioneer organisation, opening people's eyes to what youngsters could achieve. I was never in doubt that its main task was to inspire the establishment of music as a major and prestigious activity in the lives of all our children. Prep school music now matters in a way that was inconceivable 40 years ago. The opportunities our pupils have to express themselves in their music and the standards of performance achieved in a host of musical fields would surely amaze and delight all those early visionaries.

So, although some may view the decision to end IAPS music courses as harsh and draconian, a reaction to the nation's financial difficulties, I take a different stance. I have never doubted that we should respond to the demands expressed by schools and their parents. As numbers applying for audition swelled by the 1980s, so the number of courses on offer was increased. Equally, as the support of schools declines to the point when the courses become uneconomic the trust has to react accordingly.

If schools feel the need is no longer there, the time has surely come to change the work of the trust. Let us regard this as a golden opportunity. Let new means of supporting and developing the music and musicians in all our schools be the IAPS Orchestra Trust's future purpose, to ensure that we continue to give our young people musical opportunities, to delight, excite and stretch them all.

The author is former chairman and Honorary Life President of the IAPS Orchestra Trust.