On of foggy Sunday at the beginning of November, 60 of our Award winners travelled from the length and breadth of the UK to attend our 8th annual Awards Day.

Each year we invite our Award winners to come together for an inspiring day of music making with with the best musicians in the industry.  We’ve worked with some incredible partners including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra.

This year we were delighted to work with musicians from the London Sinfonietta and to hold the event at Wathen Hall, a popular performance and recording venue on the banks of the River Thames in Barnes, London.

After welcomes and introductions Award winners split off into small groups for masterclasses.  Focusing on extracts from their chosen repertoire the young musicians each worked with a Sinfonietta musician, looking at both instrumental technique and performance practice.

 The teacher put me at ease and I really enjoyed it.

 I improved aspects of my playing and took home some techniques to continue to improve.

I was reminded that the very first note that I play in audition, whether it’s one of my pieces or when tuning, is what will make the adjudicators sit up and want to listen to me.

After a coffee and cake break (there were some delicious treats baked by AYM parents) London Sinfonietta’s animateur, Neil Valentine, led a group workshop exploring a range of improvisation techniques that would come in handy later in the day.

I loved it because it helped me with my listening and improvisation skills.

Neil is a great musician and it was fascinating to learn from him and his experience.

After lunch all the young musicians came together to form a mass ensemble. Together they created a new improvised composition based on Steve Reich’s miniamilistic works, Clapping Music and Electric Counterpoint. With one unifying rhythm and a series of pitches, groupings and chord progressions for building blocks, they composed and performed their brand new piece of music to friends and family at the end of the afternoon.

It was a time when every idea counted and it helped me learn a lot about the structure of a piece.

I wasn’t sure how it would all come together…but it did!

As a composer I felt inspired by the effectiveness and simplicity of the piece we managed to create in a couple of hours.

To round off the day each young musician was presented with a certificate to celebrate their Award.

My whole family is so proud of me!

I felt a sense of achievement to be among so many really good musicians. This is the first time I have received an award. It has really boosted my confidence and self-belief.

I will remember the presentation of certificates as it was the moment that we were rewarded for our hard work and achievement.

We are only able to offer such valuable experiences to our young musicians because of the tremendous support we receive from our dedicated volunteers; so we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to planning and running the day.  Particular thanks goes to Edward Webb, who gave his professional time and expertise to photograph the event.  To find out more about Ed’s photography visit his website.