DARTFORD MUSIC SCHOOL - A MUSIC CENTRE IN THE HEART OF OUR COMMUNITY FOR 23 YEARS

By Tarnya Barr

A brief history…In the 1990’s, in efforts to improve the facilities for Dartford Grammar School and the local community; a National Lottery grant was secured to build a multi-functional arts centre. Sir Mick Jagger not only lent his name to the new centre but also opened it along with HRH Duke of Kent in March 2000. The Mick Jagger Centre was born and it has been the home of Dartford Music School ever sincethat’s 23 years so far!

Dartford Music School aims to provide exciting, inspirational and affordable music tuition opportunities in various formats. We focus on value for money activities, which will most benefit the population of music enthusiasts we serve, not only in Dartford, but those travelling from Bexley and South East London too! Our belief is that music should be accessible to all, which is why we keep our prices low. Using the minimal profit we make, we can award scholarships and bursaries where needed to keep spreading wellbeing through music in our community.

Fundraising Concert- Last month, we put on our first ever fundraising concert ‘An Evening with the Teachers’. The response was amazing with over 200 tickets sold and many more cakes eaten in our bake sale! Over £2k was raised and all proceeds will go towards our instruments and bursary fund. It truly was an enchanting performance from 11 of our superb teachers who gave an effortlessly professional performance, which was enjoyed by all! Quote: “We thoroughly enjoyed the teacher’s concert last week - what a great evening’s entertainment!”

1:1 Instrumental Music Lessons for All - We offer a wide variety of instruments to learn including singing lessons Monday to Saturday and currently employ 27 specialist tutors, teaching over 470 students. Each individual, face-toface lesson is for 30-minutes, for 31 weeks each academic year and open to all abilities and ages from five upwards.

Debare & Adil started at Red Rooster aged eight then took up to 1:1 lessons. They are now 16 playing at grade 7.

Red Rooster - Introduction to Music for Children

- Running for over 20 years now, we have an amazing group music tuition project, which is only made possible through the generous funding by Sir Mick Jagger, our patron. If you are familiar with The Rolling Stones, you can guess why the project is called Red Rooster! It is split into two programmes:

Red Rooster Sessions at the MJC- We run a two-hour group session which allows primary aged children, school years 3-6, to come and have a fun introduction to music. They learn an instrument as well as singing and drumming with our expert tutors. Each year, Red Roosters have a Winter and Summer Concert so they can perform for family and friends. We are accepting applications now for our September 2023 start and invite you to take up this fantastic opportunity and book their place now for the low membership fee of £110! have included themes from much loved films such as Mission Impossible, Rocky and The Avengers. It is an orchestra re-composed, reinvented and re-imagined!

Red Rooster Concert Choir, Claire Williams

Red Rooster Outreach- In our local Primary Schools, the amazing tutors are providing expert whole class music lessons, which the schools pay for at a subsidised rate. We enjoy hearing the wonderful feedback from the Heads and teachers who tell us how much the sessions aid in the well-being of their pupils, which is exactly our goal! We currently have 10 schools on our books, teaching 1,140 children every week and we hope to grow this even more. Debbie Sowter is one of our tutors working with Year 6 at the Dartford Bridge Community Primary School and they recently performed for their parents. Quote: “Wonderful! Amazing Year 6, Britain’s Got Talent, here we come!!!”

Dartford Youth Choir- Our choirs have been singing since September 2021 and are run by our multi-talented teacher, Claire Williams. These one-hour sessions are a chance for children to have fun, meet new friends, build confidence; all whilst singing popular favourites from the charts and musicals. Their talent and ‘cute-factor’ makes them a huge hit at our seasonal DMS Concerts! At past concerts they have performed favourites such as ‘A Million Dreams’, ‘I’d Do Anything’ and Sia’s ‘Titanium’.

DMS Orchestra- Launched in January 2022 and conducted by our violin teacher, Laci Olah, we have dedicated members of various ages, children and adults, all playing their instruments at grade level 3 and above. They are always the gem in the crown at each of our seasonal concerts! Past performances

Musicianship + Theory Sessions- Run on Thursday evenings with our singing teacher, Ms Quigley, who expertly coaches students for theory and aural exams.

Holiday Fun! Follow us on our socials to hear about our events! This summer we will be bringing you:

Rock Stars Course - 31st July - 4th August

Red Rooster Summer Fun Days - 1st + 2nd August

Musical Theatre Courses - 14th-16th August and 21st-23rd August. Some reviews from our Easter course: “It was engaging with fun icebreaker games and interactions, while using well known musicals to make everyone feel engaged.” “Encouraging and confidence building.” “Great, fun and amazing.”

We have lots more events planned so please follow us to find out more! Contact us if you are interested in any of our activities - email Tarnya: DMS@themickjaggercentre.com

We are easy to get to by bus, train and car, with ample parking available on site at the MJC. Follow us on Facebook Dartford Music School Instagram @dartfordmusicschool