Dear Trinity College London South Africa Community,

In our first general newsletter of the year, we would like to bring you up to speed with some recent happenings in the Trinity College London SA community. We are now well into 2023 and are witnessing a healthy balance between digital and in-person exams. Although there was initial uncertainty about the direction it would take, we are now seeing an approximate split of 65% digital exams to 35% in-person exams. This is a healthy mix and will allow Trinity to continue providing in person exams to those who value the experience, as well as providing the convenience of the digital model. 

Many of our eager students will be preparing to participate in their graded face-to-face examinations, which are scheduled for late May/early June. These include Classical & Jazz Music, Theory, Drama and Rock & Pop exams across the country. We wish students, teachers and parents all the best in these exams and look forward to sharing stories of success. 

In March we welcomed Carin Brand to the Trinity SA team as the new Western Cape representative. Carin has over twenty years experience in the performance arts, music, and education sectors, as well as strong event management experience - we are excited to have her on board.

We're excited to have launched our Facebook and Instagram South Africa specific social media accounts last month.  Please read more about them below and follow both to interact and help build and support the community! 

The Trinity College London South Africa team sends best wishes for your musical or dramatic pursuits in the upcoming months. Have you considered sharing your talents with us by taking one of our exams? To learn more about how to enter, please click here. 

From all of us in the Trinity College London South Africa team, best wishes for your Musical or Dramatic endeavors in the upcoming months. Have you considered sharing your talents with us by taking one of our exams? To learn more about how to enter, please click here.

Best regards,

Peter Borchers - Trinity College London National Manager for South Africa, Botswana and Namibia

peter.borchers@trinitycollege.com

As a vocalist, there are three different TCL exam routes; Classical Singing, Rock and Pop vocals, and the Musical Theatre exams falling under the Drama syllabus. There is now some crossover between Classical Singing and Musical Theatre as some Musical Theatre songs are included in the new classical singing syllabus. Of course the exams themselves differ in the sense that the pure Singing exams do not include any acting or movement elements. The following articles aim to point you in the direction of the exam syllabus most suited to you or your students.

We are all Singers

Lead Senior Examiner for Music, Kate Proudlove, shares her reflections on our relationship with singing and highlights how the Rock & Pop Vocals syllabus might be used to support learners in connecting with their own vocal style. Read more...

Singing or Musical Theatre?

The 2023 Singing syllabus was released last month, including more musical theatre repertoire than ever before. But what are the differences between the two and how do you know which one to choose for your students? Read more...

Social Media Update

We are thrilled to be launching Trinity College London SA’s Facebook and Instagram pages, where we'll be sharing inspirational top tips and motivation for practicing/rehearsing. We encourage you to share these tips with your students! We will also be sharing SA specific updates and strongly recommend you join/follow to keep up to date.

Follow TCL SA Facebook

Follow TCL SA Instagram

Trinity is conducting a survey to help shape development of the Strings syllabus. Whether you're a teacher, student or parent, we're keen to hear your views on all aspects of the exam content, and the support materials we offer. The survey is short, mobile friendly, and is open until 28 April. We look forward to hearing your views!  Click here to complete the survey - https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Trinity-Strings/

Update Your Details

Please forward to interested parities. It's useful to have your "SA Province" specified and tick the box allowing TCL to send you occasional newsletters like this one.   

We would like to continue the practice of celebrating top TCL exam achievers scoring more than 90% in their exams.  We have published a central list of all those who scored 90% and above in their 2022 exams across the country and will do so for the 2023 exams later this year.

We would like to specially mention the exceptional achievers scoring 100% in their respective exams. Well done on this amazing achievement!! 

Aaron Kahn - Piano Grade 4 (Digital)
Anna Verboom - Piano Grade 3
Bhaveer Patel - Piano Initial (Digital)
Daniel Glover - Piano Grade 1 (Digital)
Dylan Harris - Theory  Grade 1
Eliana Meya - Piano Grade 3 (Digital)
Ella Warren - Piano Initial (Digital)
Jada Cupido - Piano Initial (Digital)
Jason Aldous - Piano Grade 4 (Digital)
Jayden Olivier - RnP Drums Grade 4 (Digital)
Jianye Lian - Piano Initial (Digital)
Joshua Valentini - Theory  Grade 2
Juliet Innes - Theory  Grade 1
Kate Krummeck - Piano Grade 4 (Digital)
Khalalelo Ratlhogo - Piano Initial (Digital)
Kia du Preez - Piano Grade 6 (Digital)
Liam de Wet - Violin Grade 1 (Digital)
Lily Wu - Flute Initial (Digital)
Madi Claassen - Piano Initial (Digital)
Nandini Gangaram - Piano Grade 5 (Digital)
Nika Bell - Piano Grade 4 (Digital)
Oliver Klein - Piano Grade 2 (Digital)
Samkelo Mdakane - Piano Grade 6 (Digital)
Sechaba Masithela - Piano Grade 3 (Digital)
Sonaria Sodalay - Piano Grade 1 (Digital)
Sophie Wang - Piano Grade 1 (Digital)
William Graham - Piano Initial (Digital)
Xiang Meng - Piano Grade 1 (Digital)

With the new Social Media launch we have set in motion the #meandmycertificate ‘campaign’. The campaign is designed to give students recognition amongst their peers and family for completing their examination, and to celebrate their achievements together as a South African Performing Arts community. Their picture and the #meandmycertificate will be shared on the Facebook and Instagram platforms. Please send pics of your students with their certificate to marketing@trinitycollege.co.za.

Congratulations...

To all the participants of the 2022 National Youth Music Competition held last December, and in particular to runner up Esihle Mthethwa from Pietermaritzburg. Esihle achieved a high distinction the previous year from Trinity College for her Grade 8 flute exam. In addition, Esihle's school The Wycombe Collegiate, is kindly hosting a Trinity theory exam session in May this year and deserves a special mention. Read more...

Submitting Digital Exams

Exam Fees 2023

How to Enter 2023

Previous Newsletters

If you've made it to the end of the newsletter, you deserve some light relief.

You can't avoid reading or hearing about Artificial Intelligence these days. Should music teachers be worried? We thought it would be fun to ask one of the AI services whether a music teacher or a computer is better able to teach music. Here is the response, we can all breath a sigh of relief: 

In music, it's the human touch
That teaches skills that mean so much,
For music's not just notes and chords,
But feelings, too, that strike the chords.

A music teacher can guide and mold,
And help their students break the mold,
To find their voice, to find their style,
And learn to make their music smile.

While AI may help us analyze,
And point the way to musical highs,
It's only through a teacher's care,
That music truly fills the air.