Christopher Bell, founding director of the Phil Kids, the youth section of the Philharmonic Choir, offered a workshop to student teachers on the Kodaly method of musicianship. The workshop was well attended by students from St Mary’s and other institutions.

The programme, followed by Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choirs and developed by the National Youth Choir of Scotland, is based on the ideas of Zoltan Kodály, Hungarian composer and music educator, who did pioneering work with young children in his homeland, helping to develop their musicianship through singing and changing the direction of education in Hungary. The basis of the learning process in the early stages is through games. Children learn very naturally through play. It’s a non-threatening and highly comfortable way for them to absorb basic elements that a teacher can then draw upon to teach musical ideas.