The Music Staff Cadet Diaries...

Staff Cadet is a fairly new initiative, which allows those cadets who have not completed the training or courses that they wanted to before they ‘aged out’ the option to stay on for up to an additional 2 years. To be eligible, a cadet must be 3* complete, hold the rank of Sergeant and write to the Commandant outlining the reasons why they wish to become a Staff Cadet, detailing specifically the goals that they want to achieve. Well, always one to push it to the wire, Lily completed her 3* with just one day to go, passing her final assessment for the APC 3* Military Band syllabus last night. For the assessment, she was required to play two unaccompanied pieces of music to the appropriate standard for a Regional Music Advisor. Lily was assessed by AUO Callum Mellis, the Regional Advisor for Scotland, in a virtual session. His feedback and report was extremely complementary, praising her use of articulation, but equally giving her focus towards her next goals.

Lily joined G&P in March 2016, initially as a ‘green’ cadet based at Raglan Barracks in Newport, and successfully passed her 2* and part of her 3* green. She joined the band as an additional interest, studying both music and green subjects, before deciding to transfer fully in 2018. Lily is a very dedicated and hard working member of the band and is secretly a perfectionist - she can be extremely hard on herself if she doesn’t do things to the standard that she wants to! She certainly sets high expectations of herself!

Lily is currently applying to university and is very keen to join the Welsh Guards as a musician in the future, although she hasn’t quite decided if that will be on euphonium or as a contemporary singer. It would certainly be an amazing achievement, especially to see her returning to G&P to share her skills and knowledge with future music cadets.

Congratulations Staff Cadet Sergeant Lily Drew, and a very happy 18th birthday!