AT HALF TERM, October 2004, 26 musical students and 6 members of staff from England’s prestigious and ancient Christ’s Hospital school went to Calcutta to stay at the Mathieson Music School for some ten or twelve days. During that time they will help teach the younger Mathieson children, and join them in orchestral playing, providing a brass and woodwind ensemble for the first time in the Calcutta school’s history.

Staff and students from Christ's Hospital were very excited to take part in the Tenth Anniversary Concert. on the 30th of October, 2004, at Kalamandir, the major concert hall in Calcutta/Kolkata. For many of the current Mathieson students, it was the first time they will have the experience of playing in an orchestra which includes Europeans.

Click to read a report of the concert in THE TELEGRAPH , Calcutta, 2 November, 2004 and another in THE TELEGRAPH , Calcutta, 5 November, 2004.

The Christ's Church students find instant rapport in games with the Indian children

Christ's Hospital is an independent boarding school near Horsham, West Sussex, dedicated to providing an exceptional educational opportunity to 840 boys and girls from all walks of life. As a Charitable Foundation, Christ's Hospital uses its funds to provide the highest level of financial assistance to its pupils than any other independent boarding school. Admission to the School is usually at age 11 (into Year 7) and at Sixth Form. Preference for places is given to children of families in financial, social or other need.

The association between the two schools began in 1996, when Anup Biswas was introduced to Christ's Hospital School, Horsham, by the School Chaplain, Munna Mitra. Consequently, a group of pupils from the Mathieson Music School played a concert at Christ's Hospital as part of a three-month UK tour (which tour raised enough money to buy the three acres of land on which the new Mathieson School is built). Thus began a friendship between the two schools that is set to continue well into the future. Since then, students and teachers from Christ's Hospital have visited Mathieson periodically and have always found it inspirational. The first person to do so was Peter Allwood, then Director of Music, in 1998. He remembers that Mathieson had some excellent gap year students from England who were not only teaching music, but were also learning about living in a different culture. Allwood decided that this was something from which pupils at Christ's Hospital would reap huge benefits. The pupils who have taken part regard their experiences at MMS as memorable highlights of their education, indeed of their lives, and the current generation will no doubt feel the same way.

Bruce Grindley, Christ's Hospital Head of Music, joins the Mathieson kids for cricket

The two schools are more alike than it seems at first glance. Both schools offer an education at little or no cost, to children whose families would not otherwise be able to afford it. Acceptance into both schools is very much based on need. Some of Christ's Hospital pupils come from disadvantaged backgrounds, as do some Mathieson pupils. As full boarding students, they all sleep, eat, work and play at the schools, they are given a uniform and they return home for regular holidays. As much as possible, the schools are a home away from home. And, of course, there is the common emphasis on music. Even though Christ's Hospital is not a specialist music school, music has a high profile and is very important in its daily schedule. Both schools were founded on the ideal of giving children a step up in life, to provide them with the means of making their lives better through education - something that can never be taken from them. The Mathieson Music School has been realising this ideal for ten years now, whereas Christ’s Hospital, founded in 1552, has been doing so for over 450 years.