April marked the 17th year of Magdalen Farm Strings, a week long course for young players of which I’m patron. It takes place at the farm in Somerset belonging to the Magdalen Environmental Trust. Each year I’ve written a work for them to play, or sing – most recently setting poems by Wendy Cope and Carol Ann Duffy. This year I set two poems by Benjamin Zephaniah. The choir doesn’t have a great deal of rehearsal time, as most of the course is, naturally, taken up with string playing, but I was delighted by the enthusiasm with which they sang. Here they are celebrating at the end of the course.