Great year at the Western English Language School
WELS was the first place where we started lessons two years ago and our program has been great fun there. Thanks largely to the brilliant principal Yolette Dezilwa and our fabulous piano teacher there, James Selimovic. This year, we have had lessons running two nights a week. In March, we took a group of the primary school aged kids to see 'Princess and the Pea' by the Victorian Opera, at The Arts Centre Melbourne. And then in November, we got the kids involved in the 'Play Me I'm Yours' program, being presented by The Arts Centre Melbourne next January. We're so happy it's been such a great success at WELS and we're looking forward to growing the program further in 2018.
James sums up how much enjoyment the piano has brought to these kids this year:
'2017 was another great year at WELS Braybrook. We had a total of 14 students for lessons this year...
... Jude (16) from Nigeria stayed with us all year and did really well. Towards the end of the year we started to explore some african reggae music which he really got into, he also got some basic understanding of chords and throughout the year we developed his sight reading. He was really passionate about music and showed so much enthusiam for our lessons, always wanting to go first and always with a big smile on his face.
Jarshika (11) from Sri Lanka also stayed for the whole year. Her favorite activity at the piano was counting all the songs we had learned so far. I think it got to around 34 songs. Like Jude she was really enthusiastic all year, but anytime we had to use the left hand, it would be with much laughter and injustice. '
James Selimovic, Dec 2017.