Scottish Catholic Observer

A charity concert is taking place in Glasgow this Sunday in memory of a much-loved former pupil of the city’s St Andrew’s Secondary School.

Family, friends and former teachers of Martin Rossi (above), who died in his sleep of epilepsy last year, at the age of 24, will gather at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) for a classical music concert to pay tribute to their late friend and raise money for Epilepsy Connections, a charity that supports those with epilepsy and their families.

Martin, who was head boy at St Andrew’s in his sixth year at the school, had two great passions in life: music and sport.

Chris Rossi, one of Martin’s two elder brothers, said that, during his time at St Andrew’s, the school’s music department had ‘a great impact’ on Martin.

During the final year of his life, Martin was training to become a primary school teacher and volunteering in schools.

“I am sure those experiences and relationships that Martin took from his time in the music department would have been passed on to every pupil Martin would have worked with, and he would have helped them to embrace and nurture their artistic talents,” Chris Rossi said.

“He met most of his friends through music and made great relationships with the teachers and people who worked in and around the department. Even though Martin chose to study sports journalism at Stirling University, he was always grateful to the experiences he had with his music friends. Most of them went on to study music at university or at The Academy [the RCS] as it was known, but he still kept in contact with many of the people from school, be it meeting after classes, having a get-together, or seeing them at his beloved Celtic Park.”

All performers—many of whom are professional musicians—and helpers are giving of their time for free at Sunday’s concert, which is being organised by Des McLean, head of music and drama at St Andrew’s Secondary School.

Helping Mr McLean with the organisation of the concert is Grace Hendry Nash, a former depute head at St Andrew’s, who remembers Martin Rossi as ‘a gentle giant.’

“He would have made a wonderful role model had he lived long enough to become a teacher,” she said ahead of Sunday’s concert.

Martin’s funeral Mass took place in St Alphonsus’ Church, in the east end of Glasgow, last year.

Tickets for Sunday’s concert, which begins at 7.30pm, cost £16 (a limited number of £10 tickets are available) and can be bought through the RCS Box Office in person or online at: boxoffice.rcs.ac.uk or by telephone at: 0141 332 5057.