The opening of the new Alford School of Military Music. Previously used as detention quarters until the early 90s, the establishment has since been
used by the Royal Marines School of Music, and has now undergone a complete redesign and refurbishment to better support the training of world-class military musicians from the Royal Marines Band Service and the Royal Corps of Army Music.
The facility was opened by HRH The Princess Royal on Thursday, November 23, 2023.
used by the Royal Marines School of Music, and has now undergone a complete redesign and refurbishment to better support the training of world-class military musicians from the Royal Marines Band Service and the Royal Corps of Army Music.
The facility was opened by HRH The Princess Royal on Thursday, November 23, 2023.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Your Royal Highness, Lord Lieutenant, ladies and gentlemen, a tremendous amount of work
00:21 and dedication has gone into restoring this beautiful historic building and as we look
00:29 around today the amazing and exciting capability it brings with it. The Defence Estate Optimisation
00:36 Programme is the largest change programme in Defence and this project within that programme
00:42 is a shining example of what can be done. Today marks not only the opening of the combined
00:51 School of Music but also the joint venture between the Royal Marines School of Music
00:57 and the Army School of Music which not only safeguards this historic building here in the
01:05 naval base but also future-proofs it for the training of music within the naval base which
01:12 I personally am very excited about. I would like to extend my thanks to all of those who've worked
01:19 so hard on this project over the years and I'd like to invite Your Royal Highness the Commodore
01:25 in Chief of Portsmouth Naval Base to officially open the Alford Schools of Music.
01:31 I'm delighted and thank you for the invitation. It's a pleasure. I've had the opportunity to see
01:38 where you're going. You will enjoy it and I'm perfectly certain it will do wonderful to study
01:42 although you can't get much higher. Please enjoy your new facilities.
01:48 Thank you.
01:49 [Music]
02:13 So I mean how has today been? It's a big day isn't it for you guys?
02:18 Yeah it was it was really it was pretty special especially because
02:21 being a trainee you know that you're going to be going out and doing this once you've joined a band
02:26 but you never expect yourself to do it when you're in training so it was very very nice to do it.
02:31 And obviously you got to speak to Frances. How was that?
02:39 Yeah it was a bit nerve-wracking but she was lovely and it was very there was a lot of privilege
02:43 behind it a lot of pride. She does a lot for the military so it was it was lovely just to be able
02:49 to speak to her and just get interested and know what we would do around here yeah.
02:54 And you know what's the future for you? Where would you want to go?
02:59 Once I complete my training here which I'm hoping to do soon I'll be going out to band and then
03:05 hopefully doing more of the kind of events that happen today outside of the training facilities.
03:12 And have you seen the new? No we've not been in time yet.
03:16 And how are you feeling? Have you got high expectations?
03:22 I have high expectations yeah a lot of work has been put into it and it was a good and
03:28 reliable building before so I can imagine it's only got some better.
03:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]