The musical talents of students at YCIS Shanghai Century Park Campus reached a new, high-level octave, after a recent concert capped a two-day intensive music workshop. The workshop consisted of students practising a range of instruments, from violin and piano, all the way to the xylophone. A unique aspect of this workshop was that students were able to choose to practise an instrument with which they already had experience, or they could try an entirely new instrument. Whether they were seasoned or brand-new with their instrument, each student was provided one-on-one tutoring by a professional music teacher.

The students were also preparing for their spring concert on March 16, as a finale to the workshop.

Rainer Langhans, Head of Music and Drama for YCIS Shanghai’s Century Park and Regency Park Campuses, explained the deliberate scheduling to include a workshop prior to a concert, “Bringing in professional musicians to run workshops like this is a great complement to our already in-depth music programme. The students are provided with some additional refining of their skills before they perform on stage. They've been working very hard to get ready for the concert, so the added workshop provides a good platform to rehearse in front of a new audience – the professional musicians as well as their parents and peers. This all helps in the process of increasing their confidence before they take the stage. Also, I do believe that our young musicians here at Yew Chung can benefit greatly from interacting and being exposed to other professional musicians.”

Following the concert, Iisha, a Year 8 student and participant in the workshop, shared her experience:

“There were many performances from solos to class orchestras. Different performances displayed different genres; some performances were purely classical while others were more modern. Each performance was simply delightful – they portrayed all the hard work the students had done and the amount of practice they’d gone through to reach absolute perfection. The music workshop at YCIS was truly an enlightening experience for students and a great example of the arts at YCIS.”