Winning scholarship is music to Elliot’s ears

A colourful musical background while growing up in East Africa has led Elliot Black to establish the first ever Kenyan National Youth Orchestra (KNYO) - and has resulted in an Excellence in Performing Arts Scholarship from Edge Hill.

Music has been a fundamental part of Elliot's life ever since starting to play the flute at the age of six when his father, a missionary pilot, moved the family from Swindon in Britain to Nairobi, Kenya.

"It was my life from then on", explained Elliot. "At the time I suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and I had no co-ordination so being able to play the flute really boosted my self-esteem and music became such an important part of my world."

As a three time winner of the Young Musician of Kenya Competition, who achieved his Grade 8 Flute at the age of 13, it was clear that he was musically gifted. At the age of 16 Elliot won a place at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in the UK where he trained alongside child prodigies and performed with the Symphony Orchestra.

The 20-year-old BA (Hons) Physical Education & School Sport student, who returned to Britain in time to take his GCSEs, found moving back home a whole new experience for him. "While some boys were talking about the latest computer games, I realised that my childhood was very different from theirs and had been spent climbing trees. Coming back to Britain has been great though and changed my perceptions on life. But when I turned 18 I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and so I returned to Kenya."

Living in Kenya for another two years enabled Elliot to achieve many of his dreams. He is a member of the Nairobi Orchestra, the only full orchestra in East Africa; has helped to establish the first Kenyan National Youth Orchestra (KNYO), who performed to three million people at the Promulgation of the new Constitution; and has even introduced Kenyan school children to the bagpipes by giving demonstrations at different schools - which were greeted with great amusement.

"Establishing the Kenyan National Youth Orchestra was such an achievement," said Elliot. "It was a massive accomplishment and very difficult, especially trying to get the funding. We worked with nothing yet managed to pull it off, which made me feel so proud."

Winning the excellence scholarship will enable Elliot to continue his involvement with the KNYO whilst in the UK as well as purchase his own set of bagpipes.

He said: "I actually learnt to play the bagpipes over in Kenya and when I went back over and did lots of demonstrations in the schools it was so great to see the children's faces, they'd not seen anything like it before. This is definitely something I want to do more of. I'm very happy to win the scholarship because it will allow me to develop this even further."