CROWDS of people turned out to savour a night of entertainment starring talented young musicians at Exmouth Community College s annual charity concert. Acts, ranging from solo performances through to small bands and a 30-member-plus display from Withycobe

CROWDS of people turned out to savour a night of entertainment starring talented young musicians at Exmouth Community College's annual charity concert.

Acts, ranging from solo performances through to small bands and a 30-member-plus display from Withycobe Raleigh Primary School's Stomp group, provided the audience with an evening to remember last Wednesday, November 18.

It was the fifth annual concert, organised jointly by the college and Exmouth Rotary Club.

Tony Alexander, principal of the college, said: "The nice thing about this kind of event is that everyone gets involved.

"There is children from as young as 11 right through to 19 who perform. The standard of the performances was tremendous."

The concert started with Withycombe Stomp taking to the stage, followed by the Junior Swing Band.

Gena Bentley, Hannah Dye; Max Gregory, Josh Edwards, Ellie Jacobs, Beth Thompson, Mark Green and several other groups, were among the remaining performers.

Mark Green, who treated spectators to a two-song performance which included a rendition of Elton John's Rocket man, was one of the many people who received a standing ovation.

The 16-year-old, who can play a number of instruments, said: "I have played the violin and piano since year five and have been singing most of my life because my mum used to sing in the Philippines."

More than �1000 was raised from last year's concert which went towards charitable work at an orphanage in Tanzania.

Chris Gould, a music teacher at the college, said: "What we've been doing is we had a music teacher in the country; we bought instruments and we pay him to teach the orphanage's children."

The project has been running for around three years.

Mr Gould added: "We did have a bit of a hiccup with the teacher where he walked out but have since linked up with a rotary club in Arusha.

"The hard thing when you're doing anything from a long distance is proving where the money and so on is actually going but because of the rotary out there, it makes sure everything is cosha.

"A lot of the kids are in a damaged emotional state and what we've found is music brings them out of their shells. They start communicating via music before they do language."

Mr Gould was highly impressed with the standard of all performances at last week's college concert. Hannah Dye was one of the many people he was pleased with.

He said: "For Hannah, at last year's concert it was the first time she had performed in public and was terrified.

"But this year she went to Cardiff and performed on Britain's Got Talent and would probably have never done that if she hadn't have been put on a stage here.