Julian Lloyd Webber is first Bristol mentor

St George’s Bristol launched their new Music Mentors scheme on Monday which gives aspiring musicians in the South West an opportunity to learn from top musicians from around the world.

The new scheme will ask performers passing through the concert hall to donate a music lesson, starting with world famous cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber.

As the scheme’s official patron and first music mentor, Julian gave private lessons to two lucky cellists on Monday afternoon before his show, An Evening with Julian Lloyd Webber.

Julian has said many times that St George’s is one of his favourite venues in the world and has done several recordings in the concert hall, including his last ever recording before retiring last year.  

He said: “It’s a very good idea – if you’ve got top artists visiting a local venue, it’s great that they can share their knowledge with local people. Not just come in, do a concert and go away again.

“I think a venue like this, which is immensely popular, has a fantastic role to play in a community. I think classical musicians do need to stay in touch with communities, so therefore when they come to a place like this, it’s a very good way for them to interest people in the music they’re playing. I think it could be something that catches on in a lot of places.”

In an environment where public funding to the arts is being continuously slashed, initiatives like this couldn’t come at a better time.  

“Everybody knows that the school music is – how can you best say it – patchy. In some places, it’s very good, if you’ve got teachers who are determined and believe in the power of music.

“If a child studies a musical instrument, it’s been proved conclusively that they’ll improve with their other school work.

“At a time when things have been cut, it’s up to us musicians to try to encourage future generations, and to introduce them to music and to the great joy it can actually bring them.”

17-year old Sebrina Lambert-Rose from Prior Park School in Bath was one of the lucky students chosen for a lesson with Julian. She was nominated after recently scoring a near-perfect 92 percent in her ATCL Diploma.

“I’m over the moon,” she says. “I’ve been playing the cello since I was eight. It was supposed to be only for a term at my junior school, but I really got into it and I’ve never looked back.

“This opportunity means a lot, because I’ve never had a chance to have a master class with such a famous cellist before. I was really excited when I got the news and I really enjoyed today. The comments he made were really useful.”

Suzanne Rolt is the CEO of St George’s Bristol and it was her idea to launch the Music Mentors scheme.

She said: “It’s about where you might find that talent – or it might be that having a lesson with Julian would really inspire and possibly change someone’s musical life.

“There a lots of people who might go on and study music and they might come into the orbit of great musicians, but it doesn’t happen so much at a younger age. Those opportunities are few and far between, and certainly you wouldn’t get a child at school in Bristol, suddenly being able to have a lesson with Julian Lloyd Webber – it just wouldn’t happen.

“The idea is going forward, is to really widen it out and give everyone a chance.”

The initiative will appeal to pupils of all disciplines of music – not just those interested in classical music. St George’s is known for its diversity as a classical concert hall, with some more popular styles of music punctuating the programme, including local dub masters Laid Blak.

“A lot of the artists who come through St Georges are folk, jazz, singer-songwriters”, Suzanne continues. “Elvis Costello has been here a few times, so if I could persuade him when he next comes back to give a lesson, that would be like gold dust to somebody interested in songwriting.”

Julian adds: “I think you’ll find a lot of musicians very open to the idea. It gets a bit of a treadmill going to places, giving a concert and going away again with no real connection with the local area.

“I think you’re going to find that a lot of places start copying this initiative! I haven’t heard of it anywhere else and I think it’s a really good idea.”

To find out more about the St George’s Bristol Music Mentor scheme, visit: www.buildingasoundfuture.co.uk