With a growing unease about the lack of students playing the French horn in the North of England, Tim Jackson - currently principal horn with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and a tutor with the Royal Northern College of Music - invested in his local musical community - providing free tuition and instruments to four Year 7 students at a nearby comprehensive school.
The philanthropic musician from Preston said: "The Liverpool Philharmonic's own Youth Orchestra has only two horns, and the situation is not much better in Lancashire. The number of applicants for Music Colleges is also falling year after year which can only have a negative impact on standards in the future. With a feeling that Something Needs To Be Done, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and to buy four Kinderhorns in order to offer free instruments and free lessons to four Year 7 students at my local comp, Formby High School."
Tim contacted John Packer Musical Instruments to tell us about his project and find out more about our mini French horns, the JP161. We were inspired to get on board with Tim's project and he's been very happy with our mini Bb French horns.
"I’ve been genuinely impressed with these instruments, and would have no hesitation in recommending them for any beginner player. And once it’s time to move my new quartet onto full-size instruments, there’s no doubt that JP will be the first place I look."
"The school has been brilliant, but there's no way I could have got the project off the ground so quickly without the help of the team at John Packer who understood straight away what I was trying to do, and could not have been more supportive. The whole process was quick and straightforward - and incredible value for money!
"We now have two boys and two girls making good progress on their new horns, and I am hoping that in a couple of years we'll be able to move them onto double horns - at which point we'll give the four Kinderhorns to four new Year 7s and start all over again!"
Tim Jackson studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester University. He was a member of both the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Philharmonia Orchestra before joining the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Horn in 2011. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Philharmonia and the RLPO, and in addition to his orchestral work he has performed on numerous film soundtracks, including the “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” series.
