Head of music at St Vincent College sets the right note for incoming students after getting former students gigs at Victorious Festival

A MUSIC teacher – who bagged students the gig of a lifetime at a major music festival – is keen to carry on helping aspiring musicians get into their dream careers.
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Chris Harris, head of music at St Vincent College, in Gosport, will be welcoming youngsters back to class for his ninth year next month.

His return comes after the passionate teacher managed to bag students a role performing at Southsea’s Victorious Festival, later this month – which is set to be attended by tens of thousands of people.,

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He said: ‘It’s exciting with the new students coming through the door because you just don’t know what they are going to produce.

Chris HarrisChris Harris
Chris Harris

‘You don’t know who is going to perform, who might be better than the Year Twos and whether there’s going to be some competition for them. There are always a few that make you stop and listen.’

The 33-year-old runs six courses that encompass music performance and technology at Levels two and three and this year he is welcoming 40 students onto his courses.

Chris uses a mixture of music technology and music performance so that students have the opportunity to fully grasp the differing aspects of the industry which allows them to understand what area they wish to pursue.

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He said: ‘The ones setting up the microphones might not think they are having all the fun but they are the ones the music industry is crying out for. It needs more producers, technicians and sound engineers.’

Last year the college won Solent Sound new band competition award and Chris said that ‘they have industry professionals critiquing it and they didn’t get any negative feedback so it was great when we won.’

He said: ‘What I get a kick out of is bumping into them a few years later and hearing that they’re working in the industry.

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‘I bumped into a former student the other day who was an amazing pianist. He could have been a concert performer. He was that good. But he wanted to compose and create and he’s now a full-time composer for a video game company, which is brilliant.’

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