A new website has been launched for children learning the cello.  Current features include interviews with Steven Isserlis, who is also honorary patron of the site, and with Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry books, about Perfect Peter and his cello.  The site has been designed to be colourful and fun to appeal to children.

This website is active and has continued to be developed since I first saw it a couple of months ago.  It includes links to fun cello games and videos on the internet, listings of concerts and courses and pages on famous cellists. There’s also a section with manuscript paper, colouring-in pages and word puzzles and a Your Space section for children to send in their drawings, jokes and compositions.  The opening page is of a collaged cello design which changes colour and texture when you scroll your mouse over the different buttons.  The site includes plenty of humour.  Boccherini features in a tutu (you’ll have to visit the site to find out why) and there’s an interview with Steven Isserlis’s cello. ‘I wanted to create something especially for children learning the cello’, says Deborah Sacks who set up the website. ‘One of my favourite things is a specially commissioned picture for children to colour of a teddy-bears’ picnic with one of the teddy-bears playing the cello. The artist worked really hard to get the bow hold and cello position right!’

Website: littlecellist.com/