A new feature, profiling this year’s new crop of University Music Scholars: this week, viola-player Amy Wharton.
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The first instrument I ever played was the recorder at the age of four at my Infants School, which was followed by the viola at age eight, the clarinet at age ten, the piano at eleven and the double bass at thirteen. The viola was always my favourite instrument, and at age nine I started attending Wellingborough Music and Performing Arts Centre every Saturday morning, playing in various groups until the afternoon.
I then started secondary school (Weavers School in Wellingborough) and joined the school orchestra, which I was a part of until it disbanded two years later. When I was eleven, I auditioned to be in a county group, and successfully became a member of the Northamptonshire County Training Strings, and that is really where it all started. The next year I became a member of the Training Orchestra and the String Sinfonia, until I moved up into the Northamptonshire County Youth Orchestra when I was fifteen and when I was seventeen I sat on the front desk. I also became part of a string quartet (the Rank in 4) and did paid gigs.
Since being at Kent I have been delighted to find a thriving orchestra, which I enjoy being a part of as well as the Camerata. I am also looking forward to rehearsing the string quartet that I have set up along with three other string players. There are lots of musical opportunities at Kent, the concert at the Cathedral was amazing and I’m looking forward to the new building that we will be based in next year.
up by Peter Cook and the music department at Langton Girls School. Big Brand New is somewhat of a hybrid between a ‘traditional’ big band, and a junk orchestra! The musicians are from local schools, and a few University students, from Canterbury Christchurch and Kent.
Taking place from Wednesday 6 – Sunday 10 June, Summer Music celebrates the end of the academic year with a rich feast of musical events, including a Scholars’ Lunchtime Concert; the annual Big Band Gala at the Gulbenkian; Lunchtime at the Labyrinth; a two-choirs choral concert at St Mildred’s, Canterbury; the Musical Theatre Society; and the traditional summer Music Society concert, complete with balloons and cream-teas!
The group originally started as a jamming band formed by students studying Music Technology at the Medway campus, but soon very quickly discovered it had a lot of local interest in its music after its first gig.
As an undergraduate, I studied music education and music performance at the University of Iowa, where I played in various jazz bands, concert bands, and orchestras. After graduating from Iowa, I was a band director in Idaho for two years and was able to perform in a ska band and the Idaho Falls Symphony Orchestra.
Canterbury’s annual feast of contemporary music, 
