The Coda Summer Term starts today (Monday 17th April). We hope that you all enjoyed a relaxing Easter break and look forward to welcoming you back this week.
NEW COURSE FOR THE SUMMER TERM:
BEGINNERS PIANO COURSE
Tuesdays 7:30 – 8:30pm
Starting Tuesday 18th April
£100 for a 10-week course
The Piano Room, Coda Music Centre 
We have one space available for our Adult Beginners Piano course, starting tomorrow.
This 10-week course is specifically designed for beginners with no prior knowledge of music. The course introduces the basics of playing the piano and the foundations for learning to read music and understanding the theory of music.
This course will be a practical programme of learning to play, interspersed with discussion and exercises developing knowledge of how to understand and read music.
It is intended that this course will develop the skills and techniques needed to play beginners piano music and gain a solid foundation in basic theory of music. It should also increase your confidence and provide you with the necessary skills and knowledge to then graduate to an ‘Improvers’ piano course or one-to-one tuition, should you wish to progress further.
The cost of the course is £100 and places are limited as we have just 5 spaces available. This course takes place at Coda Music Centre: Chewton Farm Road, Walkford, Christchurch BH23 5QL
If you are interested in a place on this course, please contact Coda as soon as possible on 01425 276161 or email contact@coda.org.uk to guarantee your place. Your place on the course is only confirmed once payment has been made.
COULD YOU VOLUNTEER FOR CODA?
Beautiful Sounds sessions are Coda’s weekly music workshops for adults with learning difficulties, led by music leaders Chris Hopgood (Mondays) and Stuart Jebbitt (Tuesdays & Thursdays).
Whether you have kindly volunteered for us previously or would like to volunteer with us for the first time, we are looking for people to help us with our Monday & Tuesday sessions:
Monday 10.00am – 12.30pm (at Coda Music Centre)
Tuesday 10.00am – 12.30pm (at Coda Music Centre)
(The actual sessions run 10.30am – 12pm but we would like help with setting-up and clearing-away).
Our Monday sessions are quieter and more acoustic and our Tuesday (& Thursday) sessions are a bit louder and livelier! All of them are really fulfilling for participants, carers and volunteers – you can get a flavour of Beautiful Sounds from this clip click here
Jan, a regular volunteer for Beautiful Sounds, said this about her experience: “For a few hours every week I enjoy the company of a group of wonderfully diverse individuals whose enthusiasm and joy is infectious. I am a volunteer and together we make music.”
We are also looking for a volunteer to help us out in our Club Create creative arts and crafts sessions for learning disabled adults on Fridays 10.30am – 12pm.
Club Create drop-in sessions are fun, active workshops where you’ll be assisting art facilitator Karen Blake with hands-on making with clients who love to draw, stick, paint and create!
Sessions take place in Coda Music Centre’s Café on a Friday morning from 10.30am to 12pm each week throughout term time.
Volunteers need to be dependable, as we do rely on their attendance once committed but, in return for volunteering, we offer full induction and training, the opportunity to meet lots of lovely people, make new friends and work in a unique, friendly environment.
If you would like to know more – or if you would be interested in helping us out and giving up a couple of hours each week to assist with a Beautiful Sounds or Club Create session – please get in touch.
Contact Coda on 01425 276 161 or email contact@coda.org.uk
or you can visit our website here to download a volunteer form, which you can complete and return to Coda.
We look forward to hearing from you!
BANK HOLIDAYS
A reminder that we have THREE bank holidays in May this term
Monday 1st May – early May bank holiday
Monday 8th May – bank holiday for the coronation of King Charles III
Monday 29th May – Spring bank holiday
The music centre will be closed for all of these bank holidays.
TRINITY EXAMS
Just a reminder that, if you plan to take a Trinity music exam this term, the final deadline for submissions (and payment) is 20th April.
hArt CREATIVE WELLBEING SESSIONS
hArt now has Creative Wellbeing sessions running in four different locations (details below). 
We have been really enjoying seeing some of the work coming out of these sessions which has included felt-work, stone painting, sketches and illustrations – even recycling jars into vases! Thank you to everyone for letting us share your work. 
FROM CODA STUDENT TO THE OSCARS!
JJ Hathaway, who was brought up in New Milton and who began his formal music learning at Coda Music Trust, has just been part of the Oscar winning team for the original soundtrack for “All Quiet on the Western Front”.
At just 25 years old, JJ has already been associated with a number of high-profile projects, and has collaborated with some extremely famous names, including Oliver Coates, Celeste, Bear McCreary, Hildur Guonadottir and Volker Bertelmann, and it all started when he began to play the piano by ear as a young child.
JJ only started formal music lessons when he was 15 years old but, within two years, achieved Grade 8 piano and Grade 8 in clarinet. He gained a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and soon began making his mark as an instrumentalist and composer, as well as developing his skills as an orchestrator.
On graduating, JJ was able to look forward to working with some of the contacts he had been building throughout his educational journey, and he was successful in having a piece accepted for the Illuminated River Project in London, commissioned by Sadiq Khan and the Rothschild Foundation.
By 2023, with a growing body of work for film and television, JJ was excited to hear that “All Quiet on the Western Front” had been nominated for an Oscar for best original score, with JJ credited as assistant orchestrator. The win puts JJ firmly on the pathway to success, and came in the week before Channel 4, in collaboration with Pascal Wyse, aired its documentary on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, for which JJ wrote, orchestrated and recorded music. He is currently working on a series about the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham for Sky’s ‘Mary and George’, directed by Oliver Hermanus.
JJ remains remarkably focused on his work, which he credits with having given him many ways to cope with what life has thrown at him. Upcoming projects include “Occupied City” directed by Steve McQueen, with A24, with JJ providing music editing and sound design. An Amazon Prime production, “Foe” directed by Garth Davis sees JJ as lead orchestrator and assistant composer to Oliver Coates.
We are delighted that JJ is now an Ambassador for Coda Music Trust, recognising the value of music education being available to all, especially as arts provision in schools is being reduced.
Now London-based, JJ is excited to see Coda’s expansion and is looking forward to celebrating the opening of the new spaces with a suitable original musical celebration. He says that Coda in music may mean “the end of a piece” but for him, Coda was the beginning.
We’ll be back in touch over the course of the term with more news and we look forward to seeing you back at Coda this week.
