Do you play pan, trum­pet, trom­bone, sax­o­phone, flute, clar­inet, key­boards, per­cus­sion, gui­tar or bass? Do you sing? Are you in sec­ondary school or have you re­cent­ly com­plet­ed SEA and are about to en­ter sec­ondary school? Are you a re­cent sec­ondary school grad­u­ate? Now is the time to en­hance your mu­si­cal skills with an in­ten­sive five-week pro­gramme of sight-read­ing, har­mo­ny, ear-train­ing, tech­nique, en­sem­ble play­ing, the­atre arts and lo­cal mu­sic his­to­ry.

In ad­di­tion, there will be many oth­er cours­es to sup­port the de­vel­op­ment of your mu­si­cal tal­ents. If you like what you are read­ing then Bird­song Acad­e­my may be the place for you when school clos­es this term.

Au­di­tions for the Bird­song Acad­e­my Va­ca­tion Mu­sic Camp have been sched­uled for May 30 � 31, at 9am � 1pm. From Ju­ly 8-Au­gust 9, Bird­song Acad­e­my hosts its an­nu­al Va­ca­tion Mu­sic Camp. The camp takes place from 8am � 4pm, Mon­days through Fri­days, at venues in the Tu­na­puna com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the pa­n­yard, UWI, St Au­gus­tine cam­pus and Tapia House.

Be­cause of lim­it­ed places and the pop­u­lar­i­ty of the pro­gramme, ad­mis­sion is by au­di­tion. Au­di­tions will take place at the Bird­song pa­n­yard, lo­cat­ed at the cor­ner of St Vin­cent and Con­nell Streets, Tu­na­puna. There are no fees for tu­ition and the use of in­stru­ments.

Cur­rent­ly in its ninth year, Bird­song Acad­e­my is a free mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme tar­get­ing teenaged youth un­der the aus­pices of Bird­song, a reg­is­tered non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Sup­port­ed by Bird­song's Schol­ar­ship Fund, two mem­bers are cur­rent­ly study­ing mu­sic at uni­ver­si­ties in the US and Hol­land while a third is pur­su­ing med­i­cine in the Re­pub­lic of Geor­gia.

Sev­er­al past stu­dents are en­rolled in the UTT and UWI mu­sic pro­grammes. Re­cent­ly two stu­dents, who both re­ceived all their mu­si­cal train­ing in the pa­n­yard, were re­cruit­ed by the T&T Po­lice Band.

In Ju­ly 2012, the Pa­n­yard Ini­tia­tive was launched in eight pa­n­yards across the coun­try. This is a project of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istries of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment, Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism and Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment. This pro­gramme is pop­u­lar­ly re­ferred to as the "Bird­song Mod­el".

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion call 360-3150, 492-9757, or 769-6579