Outreach

As well as teaching regularly in London Lauren wants to share her passion for the flute and music in other countries...

Project Cre8

Earlier this year a pilot trip for the Cre8 project took two musicians to Zambia and Zimbabwe to give recitals and take workshops. As part of a two man team Lauren was involved in setting up the initiative. She worked with Leonie Creswell, based in Zimbabwe, to set up the project, engage musicians and secure funding. It was a great success and another trip is planned for the Autumn. Go to the website for more information: www.cre8music.org

Tour to Gaborone with Wissam Boustany and Jeanette Micklem

"In February 2009 I organised and participated in a tour to Gaborone with Wissam Boustany and Jeanette Micklem. With joint, generous sponsorship from Maitisong, the music company in Gaborone and the British Council we arranged 2 concerts of flute and piano music and a day of master classes for local flute students.

As my parents live in Botswana, it was a real privilege to give something back to the community and be involved in the start of many similar concerts in Gaborone.

We worked closely with Ros Beukes from Maitisong and Celine Matthee- Head of Music at Maru a Pula school, who both share an immense passion about helping young people in Botswana in the Arts and do fantastic work to fund and teach music in Gaborone.

After the day of classes the students participated in the concert in the evening, performing ensemble works only prepared that day! Not only was this an amazing achievement for the students involved, it was also their first big public performance- allowing them to learn how to deal with nerves and also receive gratitude from an appreciative audience.

With the amazing support of Maitisong and the British Council we used all the proceeds from the concert to buy new instruments for Maru a Pula School. We will be sending back 3 flutes, 1 clarinet and 1 saxophone as well as a repair kit, which will enable the students to learn how to fix their own instruments and look after them well, as there are no facilities to fix instruments within 300kms!


I plan on re-visiting Botswana as soon as possible to give more recitals and master classes, as the most important facet of this work is the follow through. It is my hope to inspire and excite young people about music, and we were so lucky to have the amazing talents of Wissam, Jeanette, Ros and Celine to initiate this work".

I was asked to write an article for the British Flute Society about the trip, to check it out click on www.bfs.org.uk/corners/Nightlight.htm