This week, the legendary Trevor Jones visited an Ottery School to inspire them to pursue their dreams and to “never say die”.
Trevor Jones was born in District Six in 1949 and won a scholarship to London’s Royal Academy of Music when he was 18. He studied at the University of York and England’s National Film and Television School where he wrote music for over twenty student projects before landing his first commissions: for John Boorman‘s “Excalibur” and Jim Henson‘s “Dark Crystal“. Since then, he has composed music for over one hundred film and television projects, many of which you’ve probably seen: “The Last of the Mohicans”, “Angel Heart”, “GI Jane”, “Dark City”, “Notting Hill”, “Around the World in 80 Days”, “Arachnophobia“, South African film-makers Craig Foster and Damon Foster‘s “My Hunter’s Heart” and a new German / South African television mini-series entitled “Labyrinth“. He also scored the 1986 “Labyrinth“, starring David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly.
Jones said he felt “rather emotional” addressing Christel House pupils at their school yesterday, because the last time he had addressed a school assembly was before he left Cape Town on a scholarship to England as a 17-year-old.
He encouraged the pupils to find mentors who could help them on their way to achieving their dreams and said many people had helped him along the way. “The bottom line is people will go out of their way to help you if you are putting in the hard work. There is no short cut to success. Success as people perceive it is only the tip of an iceberg. The rest of the iceberg, 90 percent, is failure, disappointment and frustration.”
Jones said an essay he had to write as a teenager for an English assignment on “how you see yourself in 20 years’ time” had been the most important thing in his life. He told pupils to to define what it was they wanted to achieve.
