Sir, Three cheers for Richard Morrison’s Friday column (Times2 arts, July 1), which I read after I took my son to a grade 5 music exam at our incomparable Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Service (NMPAS). It is impossible to overestimate the value of what the music service brings to thousands of children in this county.
There is a strong force of peripatetic music teachers, so that children in all schools can learn an instrument. For instance, the tiny primary school in this village is able to offer both string and brass lessons.
The result is that half the children play an instrument and four children will be auditioning to play in county music groups.
Once a child achieves a place, opportunities open up to play in concerts throughout the county and nationally. Members of the senior groups even tour abroad.
The results for the children go far beyond the music they learn; they become mature, confident and well-behaved young people, who understand how to work in a group — great team players, in other words.
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Music has enriched the life of the whole family. It would be tragic if musical education did not stay in the national curriculum.
Miriam Wilkins
Tiffield, Northants