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Organ ScholarJerome Luchesa-Smith
Jerome was born in Oxford and moved to Brussels when he was six, returning to England in 2005. Jerome has been playing the piano for four years, and is currently being taught by Dr Adam Swayne at Portsmouth Grammar school. He has sung in the choirs of the British School of Brussels, Dauntsey’s and Downside, and recently become Organ scholar at St. Mary’s.
Jerome is an enthusiastic numismatist and has an eclectic collection of coins ranging from ancient Persian to the latest two pound coins. He was the winner of the Coin News Young Numismatist competition in 2007. Jerome’s other interests include philosophy, history and classics.
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Organ ScholarLydia Stoddart
Lydia Stoddart was born in France and moved to England 5 years ago, soon after her 10th birthday. Although she had been playing the piano since she was 4 and a half, her musical career didn’t start until she moved to England where, when living with her grandmother, she began to learn the violin and sang in the choir of a nearby church. Less than a year later she moved to Portsmouth with the family where she joined St Mary’s choir.
She began to learn the oboe last February and recently took her grade 2. Last summer term she started singing lessons and took her grade 5. She is now working for her grade 4 oboe, grade 5 violin, grade 6 singing and grade 7 piano. She has just started learning the organ "which is amazing". "I love the organ because it’s quite hard reading 3 lines of music at once, but I love a challenge so it’s well worth it". Playing the organ is also good practice as some more advanced pieces require a lot of leg power to play the pedals.
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