Five students Alpha Bundu, Derick Atere-Robert, Henry Charles, Maxwell Akpa and Prince Kamara at the Ballanta Academy of Music and the Performing Arts have on Tuesday October 7, 2020 sat to the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exam.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) is an examinations board, and registered charity based in London, UK, which conducts examinations in music at centres around the world. It is one of the four examination boards accredited to award graded exams and diplomas in music within the UK’s National Qualifications Framework (along with the London College of Music, Rock School Ltd. and Trinity College London).
The Academy has been taking the ABRSM examination for a very long time; they usually conduct it twice a year. The certificates which they usually issued are internationally accredited by the ABRSM in London, UK.
A grade five student who sat to the ABRSM examination Derrick Atere Robert, explained that, he started his course in music at the academy in 2014, as a grade one student, adding that Ballanta has really changed lives and stories from the past.
“Ballanta gave me scholarship, shaped my thinking musically and made not only me but some musicians,” he said.
He is a Brass musician, plays classical music, Jazz and a Senior Music Instructor at the Freetown Teachers College (FTC); Deputy Band Leader at the Methodist Boys High School and a member of the Five Stars Brass at Ballanta.
Roberts has spent 20 years in music. “Through music I have made up my family, built a house and have many other achievements. I am very comfortable with the life I am living today,” he said.
Robert advises that all musicians should know that knowledge is power and that they should know what they are doing. “I came to Ballanta to broaden my knowledge in music and coming to Ballanta I have never regretted it.”
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
9/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7927