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From Alan Hall
Chairman,
PLG Young Artists Programme Committee
A
new year, another January concert series and a further opportunity to reflect on
the musicianship of the Park Lane Group's young artists. The performers
presented in this showcase have flourished within the formal structures of
musical training and are now in a position to enrich musical life, both with
their playing and their commitment to new music.
Being
fortunate survivors of the current experience of music education, they may also
be seen and heard as an indicator of the nation's musical health. Despite the
alarming denigration of music within schools and the now familiar crises of
confidence in their chosen profession, it would seem that contemporary music is
in a robust condition.
The
breadth of mind - and musical enthusiasms - of the young musicians applying for
the PLG series suggests that the aesthetic blinkers of recent years have fallen
away. There's a recognition and
appreciation of musical qualities across an ever wider range of styles and
aesthetics.
And
in this must be found the path into the new century.
Not the unthinking, tokenistic acceptance of all things, but the
identification and celebration of true musical worth - within schools and
colleges, the music business and the listening public.
Our
guides along this route to a successful musical future may well be found
performing on the stage of the Purcell Room this week.
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