KC students to get music fellowships

Eighteen students at Kingston College (KC) are to get musical fellowships over the next three years, aimed at strengthening and preserving the school’s choir.

The fellowships are being made available to the students by the Noel Spencer family.

Spencer is a past student of KC and has contributed to the school’s development over many years.

Under the fellowship programme which kicks off at the start of the new school year, six students – four in first form and two seniors – will be given fellowships valued at a quarter of the year’s school fee, to enhance the treble section of the choir.

Spencer said that there is a shortage of students singing treble and the aim of the fellowship is to get more of them interested in this aspect of the choir.

He explained that the project is designed so that two seniors will be given the fellowship to train and assist four first-form students to sing treble.

The students to benefit under the fellowship programme will be selected by a three-man committee comprising the choir director, the deputy headmaster and a member of the chapel committee.

The fellowship will be repeated each year for the next three years, he said.

Contributions to Kingston College by the Spencers include: assisting with paying for the athletic track at the school, providing the Spencer Family Art Studio classroom, assisting with the refurbishing of the Douglas Forrest Building, as well as the donation of drones to be used in the school’s robotics programme.

The Kingston College Trust Fund has also benefited over the years from contributions made by Spencer and his family.

But their largesse is not confined only to Kingston College. Donations have also been made to the St Jago Past Students’ Association to assist with that entity’s scholarship and tuition assistance programme.

The Mount Vernon Community Health Center in Westchester, New York has also been gifted by Noel Spencer.

So, too, has the Tuskegee Airmen scholarship programme which was given a US$20,000 endowment.

Speaking specifically about the new fellowship project, Spencer said that he is concerned that not enough students are singing treble and this could have a long-term negative effect on the school choir.

“It is to address this situation and to ensure that the Kingston College Chapel Choir remains at a high standard that it was decided to implement the choral fellowship grants,” he said.