Upbeat: Play for time

A TALENTED 12-year-old pianist from Belgrade, the son of a Bosnian Muslim mother and a Montenegrin father, may have to discontinue studies at the specialist Purcell School in Harrow and return to Serbia if new sources of funding fail to appear soon, writes Andrew Green. Viktor Bijelovic, who has won a series of international age-group competitions since 1990, was introduced to the piano simply to improve his physical co-ordination. Having ploughed their own money into Viktor's first year of studies as well as sponsorship from a Belgrade company, Jasmina and George Bijelovic have been taking it in turns to live with him in Harrow. But those funds are now exhausted, and a Purcell School scholarship for 1993/94 will not make ends meet.

Viktor is one of several pupils at the school from eastern Europe, not all of whom are receiving external financial support. 'We're trying the best we can to bear the brunt of it ourselves,' says the school's headmaster John Bain, 'but it's a real headache.'