On 29 March, 62 children from six primary schools across Maidstone and Malling came together at Roseacre Junior School to perform in this year’s Maidstone Recorder Festival. The children were led by conductor Karen Barton-Holman, and accompanied by 2019’s Maidstone Musician of the Year, Matthew Hua.

As well as the 11 pieces played by all participating schools, the audience were also treated to some fantastic pieces played by individual schools; St Katherine’s Primary School played Hello, Flower!, whilst St Margaret’s Collier Street performed Jump! Kent Youth Recorders also performed two pieces, demonstrating that playing the recorder is not as simple as some may think! Their talent and skill gave the younger children something to aspire to within their own musical development.

In addition to playing the recorder, a number of the pieces also gave the children the opportunity to showcase their singing skills. However, it wasn’t just the children that were singing – the audience were excellent sports by singing and clapping along to If You’re Happy and You Know It, and they even did so voluntarily! Children from St Katherine’s Primary School had this to say about the concert:

“I loved it; it was amazing.”
“The older recorder players were really impressive and we enjoyed listening to them.”
“It was really fun and nice to play in front of people.”

Thank you to Roseacre Junior School for hosting the event, to all the schools for taking part and giving us a wonderful performance, and to all the family and friends who came to support Maidstone’s young musicians.