As a young teenager, I enjoyed Saturday morning Ernest Read Concerts for Children with a group from my school Coombe County Girls. Many well known musicians of the time played for us. I remember John [sic] and Phyllis Sellick and Leon Goosens. At Christmas and Easter we sang in a huge choir of schoolchildren, boys and girls, usually Messiah or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St Matthew Passion also Britten's Ceremony of Carols; a challenging and moving experience. Much fun and excitement was to be had in the break between rehearsals and performance, roaming around the back rooms and staircases. So began a life long love of music and participation in choral singing. In 1995 my school friends and I met up for a reunion 40 years on at the RFH and again 50 years on, in 2005.