At a primary school I have had to pullout of the annual carol concert this year. There are a number of reasons for this.
The music needs to be of a good standard because it is a public event and my group is not ready yet.
There has been a big reduction in the time that we can rehearse or allow pupils private practice sessions, so therefore reaching the standard is going to take longer.
The venue is a very small church and even if we were ready there would not be a good position for us to perform where the parents could see there children. So once we have had to move a lot of big and heavy equipment the whole point of the performance is compromised.
In the school the year group that were chosen to perform are known to be a challenge and the music lessons are a good way to develop new learning skills/confidence. So it is important that they have the chance to perform under the best conditions.
I did feel bad about making the decision to start with but as I discussed this situation with the school staff I could see that it was the best thing to do. They will also feedback the issues to the school management and someone may even say " hey, why wasn't Gareth and his drummers at the carol concert this year"
