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Before the politicians, it was the bankers who were in the doodoo. They were caught not spending our money, but wasting it on daft investments. Billions they lost apparently. It's a wonder we have any left. Now they are to go some small way towards making amends by singing Purcell with local schoolkids in a concert called at the Barbican on Monday 8th June.

The inspiration behind this banker rehabilitation project is Clare Delmar whom I met last Thursday. She had just been to one of the rough schools involved in the concert and said she'd like a double scotch but made do with a herbal tea. She is engaging, enthusiastic and brimming with ideas, which, in her punchy Massachusetts accent sound fresh, new and original to a deadpan Brit.

One of her 'lightbulb moments', she tells me, came to her three years ago while watching the TV programme . She thought, 'why not Singers in the City?' and immediately fixed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Singers up with a series of education schemes at City companies. This suited the musicians, who were used to running workshops in schools under the 'education' banner. The children would be diverted for half a day and the teachers grateful, but the work generally yielded poor results for the effort put in. The grown-up bankers on the other hand were receptive and keen which made the visits rewarding.

Out of this emerged the current scheme. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Singers were no longer involved but the bankers and the schools were. They would put on a joint concert. Some of the more socially-minded bankers already had contact with local schools, volunteering their services as readers or occasional classroom assistants. (The company KPMG is opening an Academy school in Hackney next year.) These links were fanned into proper working partnerships which took time and met resistance from the schools. 'The government bangs on about partnerships,' says Delmar, 'but not everyone knows how to form them.'

Acquiring a venue was a key part of the project. Delmar approached Nicholas Kenyon, whom she had known at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, and he gave her free use of Barbican Hall. She is very persuasive. Next Richard Frostick of the arts charity came on board as artistic director and, through him, the to present the concert.

The former cathedral chorister and rock musician was enlisted to arrange the music and train the singers. He took the music Purcell wrote for - the Masque of The Seasons - and adapted it for choirs accompanied by the period instruments of the Guildhall Baroque Ensemble. He has changed nothing of Purcell's original except one note which he challenges the audience to identify. He has however added one or two numbers of his own plus some of Shakespeare's text from just as Purcell did - the original masque was composed to embellish a performance of the play - and given the new half-hour suite the name The Fairy Dream.

Delmar thinks it especially amusing that the children will be singing 'Hail Great Parent!'. She knows they will be tickled by the section headed 'Bottom's Song and Dance' and the song 'Thorough Bog Thorough Bush'. She is thrilled at the opportunity to introduce the young to Baroque music and bankers to social work. Mostly though, she enthuses about the wider aspects of the experience, the cultivation of 'life skills' in the children presenting themselves with confidence on stage, interacting on equal terms with adult singers, learning lines, respecting fellow performers and quietly listening to Purcell's music. They stand to gain more than anyone from the event.

The schools taking part are: Oaklands, Bridge Academy, George Green's (secondary) and St Clement Dane's, Stepney Greencoat, Loughborough and St Paul's Church of England (primary).

The City firms are: Deloitte, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Pricewaterhouse, Cooper's, Allen and Overy, KPMG, News International.

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