3 of the visiting Vocational Study Team (VSE) from Denmark were made very welcome at the City of Wolverhampton club meeting on 28th March.
Photo shows President Sylvia with team leader Charlotte Venning and members Bjarne Hansen and Jeppe Lorenzen
Team member Anne Jensen was on a vocational assignment.
Rotary Young Musicians enthralled the audience in a great demonstration of the talents of our young people.
A full house was in the Wolverhampton Music School on March 26th for the Regional (cluster 3) final of the Rotary Young Musician Competition, hosted by the Rotary club of The City of Wolverhampton.
4 Districts, 1060,1070,1210 and 1220 had entered 7 young musicians from their District finals rounds and their performances were simply stunning, causing the adjudicators to describe many of the presentations as “perfection in every way,” and “of an excpetional standard” They certainly had a difficult task in selecting the winners in each of the instrumental and vocal categories to go forward to the National final which is due to be held on April 23rd at Chethams School of Music in Manchester.
However, after much deliberation, vocal adjudicator Simon Whitmore decided that 16 year old Hatti Candler, sponsored by the Rotary Club of The Wrekin in District 1210 won the day with her performances of ‘The Girl In 14G’ by Tesori and Scanlan,’ ‘A Song Of Shadows’ by Walter de la Mare and ‘Love’s Philosophy’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
In the instrumental section, the audience was amazed as Ammera Hashmi, sponsored by the Rotary club of Lichfield St, Chad in District 1060 gave faultless playings on the piano of ‘Novellettes in C major and Bb minor’ by Francis Poulenc and a piece which caused many smiles, ‘The Cat and the Mouse’ by Aaron Copland, so Ameera will be going forward to the National Final.
This was Rotary at is best, encouraging, supporting and recognising the terrific talents of so many of our young people.
PDG Richard Green.
Young Musician 2023 – District Final – ensemble.
A full house was in the Wolverhampton Music School on March 5th for the District final of the Rotary Young Musician Competition.
7 clubs had entered 9 young musicians from their club level rounds and their performances were simply stunning, causing the adjudicators to describe many of the presentations as “perfection in every way,” and “extremely competent.” They certainly had a difficult task in selecting the winners in each of the instrumental and vocal categories to go forward to the Regional final which is due to be held on March 26th, leading to the National Final on April 23rd in Manchester.
Young Musician 2023 – District Final Pres Sylvia and Catherine Chung.
Our own City of Wolverhampton club’s entrant, 16 year old Catherine Chung who attends Wolverhampton Grammar School, had slightly changed her programme from her choices at the club level round. This time, she earned a huge round of applause as she rendered ‘Domine Deus’ by Vivaldi, ‘Music For A While’ by Purcell and ‘Nell’ by Faure.
Young Musician 2023 District Final – winning vocalist Hattie Candler.
However, after much deliberation, vocal adjudicator Lorna Parkhouse decided that 16 year old Hatti Candler, sponsored by the Rotary Club of The Wrekin won the day with her performances of ‘The Girl In 14G’ by Tesori and Scanlan,’ ‘A Song Of Shadows’ by Walter de la Mare and ‘Love’s Philosophy’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Young Musician 2023 – District Final winning instrumentalist Tom Junde-He.
In the instrumental section, the audience was enthralled as Tom Junde-He, who is only just over 11 years old, gave faultless playings on the piano of ‘Fantasia in C Minor’ by Bach and the instantly recognisable ‘Fantasie Improptu’ in C minor by Chopin.
Tom attends King Edward VI Five Ways School in Birmingham and was sponsored by the Dudley club as a result of his performance in the recent Dudley Festival.
The trophies and winners’ certificates were presented by District Governor Steve Antill who said it had been a truly amazing afternoon of music, adding that he was glad he wasn’t one of the judges!
A celebration of the 2023 Wolverhampton Fair Trade Fortnight took place on Friday March 3rd in the Mayoral Suite at the Civic Centre.
left to right – Wolves Foundation rep – Marnie Richards. Midland Counties Co-Op Manager Greg Seymour, RMG, Mayor Councillor Sandra Samuels, Fair Trade Chair Julia Farrell.
All 4 Wolverhampton clubs support the intiative by sponsoring a children’s painting competition to raise awareness, particularly among young people, of the importance of Fair Trade. The challenge this year was for the children to design a new logo. In her opening speech at the awards ceremony, the Mayor, Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE was fulsome in her praise of the numerous schools and pupils that had entered, all of whom attended the event. She said she was proud of the important work done by the Partnership to promote fair trade and was extremely impressed by the children’s work exhibited.
Winner of the painting competition Anaiya Patel.
The City of Wolverhampton Club was represented by PDG Richard Green who joined President Bob Stolz from the Bilston and Wolverhampton West club and joint sponsors The Wolves Foundation, represented by Marnie Richards and Midland Counties Co-Op, represented by Greg Seymour.
We were pleased to stand with the Mayor in presenting certificates of recognition and prizes to all the short listed entrants and of course, to the winner, Anaiya Patel from Uplands Junior School.
The Chair of the Partnership, Julia Farrell spoke of the progress made around the City of the promotion of Fair Trade, which includes matrix display signs on the ring road, an agreement by one of the major employers in the aerospace industry to supply only fair trade goods in their canteen and the growing popularity of the shop in the Mander Centre.
It was a special pleasure that, through our connections with the Wolverhampton Schools Music Hub, the club was able to arrange for the school’s Big Jazz Band to perform a 10 minute set at the event.
The Schools Music Service Big Jazz Band performs – they were truly amazing!
The Head of the Music Service Ciaran O’Donnell who led the band, told the gathering he had searched for compositions that were linked to Fair Trade and the effects of climate change. So he had skillfully chosen 3 jazz pieces that were relevant – ‘A Night In Tunisia’ by Dizzie Gillespie, ‘Birdland’ by a band called Weather Report and‘Here There And Everywhere’ by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The audience was visibly overawed by the extremely high level of performance on display, and the Mayor said she was booking the band for a future event straight away!
PDG Richard Green
Past President of the City of Wolverhampton club Richard Green has just returned from a 2 week trip to India on behalf of Rotary, where he visited 16 clubs. He also attended the Conference of District 3201 at which he was given an honorary welcome by the 2200 
delegates, and held a number of meetings to prepare for several future humanitarian projects to be funded by the Rotary Foundation in partnership with various clubs in Great Britain and Ireland. These will include 3 mega Jaipur Limb camps for amputees, checkdams to assist farmers with irrigation,a dialysis centre, a mobile health clinic and the provision of sewing machines for 40 ladies who have just completed a sewing course arranged by the local club, Pavagada, District 3190.
On his visit to the Rotary Club of Changanacherry, District 3211 in Kerala, he was very pleased to receive a Rotary Service Award certificate which recognises the support sent by the City of Wolverhampton club
during the pandemic in the form of a number of oxygen concentrators and BiPap machines enabling Covid sufferers to breathe.
At the conclusion of a meeting with the Rotary club of Quilon, District 3211, Richard was surprised and delighted to receive a personal Rotary Excellence Award in recognition of the support and guidance he is giving to the club as they draw up their plans to hold a mega Jaipur Limb camp.
