Awards for Young Musicians

Giving talent a chance

Welcoming our new Guardian Angel

We are delighted to welcome our new Guardian Angel, Becky Goldsmith, who has made a generous gift to AYM of £10,000.

Becky is pictured here with our Chairman, Philip Jones, handing over her gift. Thank you so much Becky for Giving Talent a Chance!

This amount of money makes a real impact at AYM. For example £10,000 funds an average of 20 places on our annual Awards programme, or covers 500 individual instrumental lessons for young people on our Furthering Talent Programme.

Becky is a friend and neighbour of AYM Patron, guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, who introduced her to AYM’s work.  Here Becky explains why she chose to become a Guardian Angel after finding out more about what we do:

“My own appreciation of classical music began when I was 5 and first sat at the piano. It has deepened and broadened since then and I’m still learning. For a long time I have felt the need to encourage serious young classical musicians in learning their craft and reinforcing their love of the medium.  My life now is finite and I am feeling that it would be far more satisfying to donate to your organisation now than by bequest. This way I get to know you and delight in seeing and hearing the recipients of AYM support. Other than my good fortune in the love and friendship of many around me, music is my soul’s sustenance and source of comfort and happiness. I just want to feed the eagerness and talent of the young (and very young) so that they too have wonderfully musical lives, professionally or as part of their humanity.”

We were delighted to be able to invite Becky along to the Royal Academy of Music, to observe a group of our Award winners working closely with musicians from City of London Sinfonia. The workshop was part of a month long chamber music project (one of many opportunities/projects our Awardees benefit from), which has been kindly funded by the Elias Fawcett Trust. Of the experience of going along to the workshop, she commented:

“Witnessing the class, experiencing the seriousness of the very young students and listening to their playing convinced me, if that were necessary, of the soundness of my decision to support. Their enthusiasm was ineffably moving and gladdened my heart.”

Above: Becky is pictured observing the workshop at the Royal Academy of Music. Below: our young Awardees hard at work.

Guardian Angels are generous individuals who donate £5,000 (or more) annually, to support our programmes of work.  We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our other Guardian Angels: John Capaldi, Aileen Lauler,  Mrs Peta Martin, Stephanie and Marek Kulesza (the McKenzie Johnston Awards) and Mrs Viola Bent (Viola Bent Awards) as well as our host of Angels and Cherubs. Your patronage is vital and makes a huge difference to the young people we support. If you would like to discuss becoming an AYM Angel, please contact our Director, Hester Cockcroft on 0117 904 9906 or email her.

 

Marvellous mentors making music

On Sunday 29 January 45 young musicians supported by AYM travelled to Richmix in London, for a day of mentoring and musical exploration.

In 2016, with funding from Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme, we launched a three tiered peer-to-peer mentoring programme called Talent to Talent.  15 members of our Awards Programme Alumni – many of whom are now studying music to the highest level or developing a performance career – have been mentoring 15 of our current Award winners, whilst they have in turn been mentoring 15 younger musicians from our Furthering Talent programme.

The project grew from the findings of the AYM hosted Musical Progression Roundtables, (part of our Innovation and Research strand,) in which over 300 organisations came together between 2009-2014, to share expertise and explore how the sector could better support young people’s music-making. Consensus emerged that young musicians need to lead their own learning, which led to the creation of the peer-to-peer approach which Talent to Talent is taking.

Mentors on the programme received expert training from our project facilitators, Ben Sandbrook of World Pencil, Darren Lynch-Burton and Hans Soghe from Aspiration, Creation, Elevation and Paul Sherman, one of the UK’s most-in-demand Double Bass players. Throughout the year participants on the project have come together at various times, to share experiences and make music together.

The day included 1:1 mentoring time for each pair, plus the challenge of creating new music based on themes that had emerged from the project.  We were delighted to be joined by AYM supporter, singer-songwriter, cellist, pianist and recording artist Ayanna Witter-Johnson for the afternoon.  She performed one of her original songs and answered questions about the musical journey she had made to reach her music career;  she then supported our young musicians as they devised their new compositions, which were performed to friends and family at the end of the day.

Here are some of our favourite photos from the day.

Paul Sherman leads an invigorating musical warm-up

Ayanna Witter-Johnson performs and shares her musical journey

Three groups devise and perform pieces based on mentoring themes

 

 

AYM joins forces with Southwell Music Festival

One of the key aspects of our Awards Programme is connecting our Award winners with partner orchestras and other musical organisations; they can provide access to exciting musical opportunities, such as tickets to rehearsals and concerts, masterclasses, mentoring and the chance to perform at events.

Southwell Music Festival (in Nottinghamshire) is an annual, top-quality classical music festival, taking place each August Bank Holiday. In 2015 and 2016 the festival opened their doors for our Award winners to many rehearsals and concerts throughout the weekend .  In addition we were delighted to strengthen this partnership by devising a collaborative event that took place on Sunday 22 January 2017.   Three lucky East Midlands Award winners, Katharine (cello), Tim (violin) and (Annie), having been selected for the project by AYM’s volunteer events programmer Julia Roth, spent the day being coached by Nathaniel Boyd (cello), Jamie Campbell (violin) and Libby Burgess (piano), on both solo and chamber repertoire, before performing to a packed audience in the beautiful Southwell Minster.

The event took place at Southwell Minster and The Archbishop’s Palace, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter.  An extensive refurbishment of the Archbishop’s Palace at Southwell was carried out in 2014, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. We recommend a visit! We also recommend attending this summer’s festival. Their exciting programme will be announced soon.

The photos and local review below speak for themselves.

GIVING TALENT A CHANCE

At a concert in the Crossing at Southwell Minster on Sunday 22nd January, three highly talented teenage musicians from the East Midlands inspired their audience with performances of the greatest promise.

They were there thanks to an imaginative partnership between the Southwell Music Festival – whose aims include providing a platform for young musicians – and Awards for Young Musicians (AYM) whose motto is ‘Giving Talent a Chance’. AYM achieves its mission, in part, by providing support to children and young people with exceptional potential who are from lower income backgrounds.

The concert was the culmination of an intensive day’s training, during which three beneficiaries of AYM’s support – violinist Hing Tim Fung (15), cellist Katharine Ley (17) and pianist Annie McChrystal (14) – were coached by three of the Music Festival’s leading performers – Associate Artistic Director and violinist Jamie Campbell, cellist Nathaniel Boyd and pianist Libby Burgess.

Many of those present to hear the concert had been equally inspired during the afternoon; they were sitting in on a public masterclass, at which they saw and heard the youngster’s performances taking shape under the professionals’ expert guidance.

The three young musicians each demonstrated why they were worthy of support in a solo item – Tim showing great sensitivity in the first movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 3 and Katharine displaying great intensity and beauty of tone in Rachmaninov’s Danse Orientale, each accompanied by Libby Burgess.  Annie commanded the audience’s attention with an authoritative account of the first movement of Beethoven’s famous Piano Sonata known as the Pathétique.

They then combined very effectively in Three Miniatures for Piano Trio by Frank Bridge. These delightful pieces – hornpipe, waltz and military march – displayed different aspects of their talent and an obvious pleasure in making music. This achievement was particularly remarkable, considering that they had only met once before the day and were playing chamber music for the very first time.

The three professional musicians closed the concert with a memorable performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor. The virtuosity, emotional intensity and evident delight in this music and in playing it together was totally absorbing; this was the best possible example for the young players watching and listening; it is inevitable that the young people were inspired to consider that in ten or twenty years or so, they could be giving such a performance themselves.

 

 

Award winner photo competition

At each of our annual Awards Days our Award winners are presented with a certificate to celebrate their achievement.  This year we set our Award winners the challenge of staging a photograph of themselves with their Award that told a story about themselves. It could tell any story, be it about their other hobbies, their family or any other element of their life.

We received some great entries and have included some of our favourites below. Our winner this year is Alex, a 13 year old percussionist from Cheshire. Alex spent his Christmas performing as the pit drummer for the Cheshire Youth Pantomime Society’s production of – you guessed it – Cinderella.  He’s pictured here with the lovely ugly sisters.

“We have been to see this company’s [Cheshire Youth Performing Society] annual pantomime for a few years and I always enjoyed listening to the band – this year I was asked to play. It was a great week with lots of music in differing styles. The tricky thing was making sure the music, and additional drum and cymbal crashes synchronised with the performers. At the end of one of the performances, Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby from Coronation Street) came to tell me how much she had enjoyed my drumming – I just hope she didn’t miss any of the action on stage! I had a great week and am looking forward to next year’s show.”

 

Well done Alex, both on your Robert Lewin scholarship and for being invited to perform as a pit drummer!  Alex’s other achievements this year include being offered a place in the main orchestra of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain, and beginnning studies at the Royal Norther College of Music’s Junior Department, for which AYM is helping with the costs.  At our Awards Day, Alex worked alongside three BBC percussionsts.  As he put it:

“The day at Maida Vale, with the BBC SO, was amazing! I had the opportunity to perform alongside professional musicians with the whole percussion section as my mentors.” 

Here are some of the runner up entries to our photo competition

Ashley (far left), age 11, from London. As well playing piano, guitar and violin, Ashley is also a keen ballet dancer. She composed this photo of herself and some friends from the London Russian Ballet School as they were preparing for a performance at Sadler’s Wells. AYM are supporting Ashley with her piano lessons.

Lucas (centre), age 9, from London. Lucas is learning the trumpet and plays with the Nucleo orchestra. He enjoys making music with his family. His photo shows him playing festive tunes with his two brothers. AYM are supporting Lucas with private trumpet tuition.

Meredith, age 11, from Stirlingshire. Meredith lives in a beautiful part of Scotland and enjoys walking with her Mum when home from her new school, St Mary’s Music School. Her photo was taken at the top of Connich Hill, near Ben Lomon. AYM are supporting Meredith with the cost of Clarsach (Scottish harp) lessons, although she also plays violin and piano.

 

An unforgettable day at Maida Vale Studios with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

On Sunday 4 December 105 of our 2016 Award winners travelled from across the UK to meet at BBC Maida Vale Studios for a day of cross-genre music making with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

It was a busy and exciting day with different activities taking place throughout the maze of studios. 40 of our classically trained Award winners took part in a rehearsal and performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 (movement 2) and Bizet’s Habenera from Carmen. Each Award winner sat with and was mentored by a BBC SO musician for the day. The specially created AYM/BBC SO orchestra was conducted by AYM Patron, and Alumus of our Awards programme, Duncan Ward. 

“The BBC SO percussion section were really friendly and encouraging. They gave me opportunities to play the main parts, rather than the less important parts. I’m still buzzing!” Alex (percussion)

Another 50 Award winners, representing a variety of musical genres, worked with BBC SO musicians to devise a brand new cross-genre composition taking inspiration from Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Bernstein’s Mambo from West Side Story. The new composition was premiered at the end of the day with different groups of instruments taking the lead in different sections of the piece.

“I learnt a lot about key aspects of composition. I also learnt about what I need to do to be the best musician I can be. I went from nervous to confident about my ideas.” Romola (violin)

15 Award winners with an interest in music technology became radio producers for the day. Splitting into two groups, they spent the morning creating their own AYM radio show, taking on different roles such as producer, presenter, guest etc. The afternoon was spent learning about live sound recording and working with a BBC radio producer to record the final performances by the BBC SO/AYM Orchestra and the creative response group’s composition. These recordings will be made available soon.

“I learnt all about the different sound desks and got to play the part of a radio presenter and an assistant producer. It was amazing to see all the photos of so many amazing stars on the corridor walls and to think that we were in a venue where The Beatles and Bing Crosby have recorded their legendary music.” Florrie

After the final performances to friends and family each Award winner was presented with a personalised certificate to mark their achievement in winning a 2016 AYM Award.

The event was made possible by the hugely generous donation by the BBC of their musicians’ time, as well as the free use of Maida Vale Studios.  We were able to support the travel expenses of families to attend the Awards Day thanks to grants from The Andor Charitable Trust and The Kobler Trust, as well as donations by individual AYM Angels and other donors.  The photographs below were taken by AYM volunteer photographer Adrian Cleverley .  We would like to also thank all the other volunteers who gave their time to help on the day and the BBC Get Involved team for devising a fantastic programme for our young musicians.

Our next Awards Day will be in Manchester in Autumn 2017.  Details to follow in due course.

Side by Side rehearsals

Creative response group

Studio producers

Performance and Awards ceremony

 

All Furthering Talent students to receive music vouchers from Take it Away

We are delighted that our friends at Take it Away will be supporting our Furthering Talent programme.  Take it Away will provide each participant with a £25 voucher to spend in their local Take it Away partner music store, as part of a welcome pack students receive when they join the programme.

 

“Take it Away are proud to support the Furthering Talent programme by providing each participant with a £25 voucher to spend in their local Take it Away music store.

 The scheme has a network of around 300 member stores, where customers can take advantage by spreading the cost of an instrument and associated equipment, over 9 or 18 months. Take it Away loans are completely interest-free to the customer, making the ownership of musical instruments more manageable.  Like Awards for Young Musicians, Take it Away is passionate about helping children and young people develop their musical talent.  

Take it Away believe the Furthering Talent programme is a brilliant initiative and wishes all the participants the best of luck on their musical journeys.”