A teenager from a small town in the central west of NSW is heading to Tamworth to study with professional country musicians
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Sixteen-year-old Jerome Shepherd, a Warren Central School student, has been accepted into Junior Academy, an intensive residential music course held from July 1-8.
The year 10 student is one of three instrumental students in the course, attending on a partial APRA scholarship.
![Jerome Shepherd, 16 years old from Warren Central School, will be attending the CMAA Academy of Country Music junior course in Tamworth. Pictures supplied Jerome Shepherd, 16 years old from Warren Central School, will be attending the CMAA Academy of Country Music junior course in Tamworth. Pictures supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/QQwHRnUv9qYdvjDNLdqaup/b5a1bcda-18ee-4420-a7e6-3a3443c291e3.png/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
He will join 21 aspiring artists from across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia who will attend the CMAA Academy of Country Music junior course.
"It's very exciting," Jerome told ACM. "Coming from a small country town, there's not a lot of opportunities to get accepted into something that big."
Jerome heard about the course after his auntie, singer and songwriter Noah Overs, attended the senior course.
"She's the reason I'm doing the junior one," Jerome said.
Music was always important in Jerome's family growing up and his auntie - who lives in Tamworth - used to play guitar and sing to him when he would visit during school holidays.
He said playing music "just feels good".
A local Aboriginal arts and language organisation in Warren, Warraan Widji Arts, funded music lessons with professional musician, Graham Burns, who prepared Jerome for the Academy.
Jerome said he was looking forward to meeting the other young people in the course, and learning more about the instruments.
"It's just a great opportunity to be able to be a part of it."
The students will learn from ten-time Golden Guitar winner Lyn Bowtell, fellow Golden Guitar winner and Bushwackers member Roger Corbett, and Golden Guitar winners Ashleigh Dallas, David Carter and Aleyce Simmonds, and touring multi-instrumentalist Liam Kennedy-Clark.
Ms Bowtell, who is also Academy director, said the students would learn a lot from their mentors, and she was particularly excited to have young musicians attending.
"We have some young instrumentalists coming which is exciting because The Academy is a wonderful environment for them where they get to learn so much and have support from Liam and other musicians and interns," she said.
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"It's been a couple of years since we've run a full junior academy so it's going to be nice to see everyone face-to-face and work with the students and parents in person."
Group leaders will mentor the students and their parents through everything a career in music involves including performance, musicianship, song writing, music business, social media and media relations.
It is the first time the course has run in its full capacity since 2019, due to COVID. It will take place in the lead-up to the Hats Off to Country Festival.
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