Music education charity Awards for Young Musicians has today announced it is rebranding as Young Sounds UK.
Effective from today, the charity’s new identity has been created to ‘better reflect the breadth of its work with young people’ and will allow the charity to connect with a ‘broader range of young musicians than ever before’.
The newly-renamed Young Sounds UK will continue its vital work identifying and nurturing young talent that might otherwise go undeveloped. The charity’s programmes of support are available to young people in the UK aged 5-17 from low-income households.
Young Sounds UK chief executive Hester Cockcroft said: ‘After 25 years of tackling the obstacles faced by young musicians and those working with them, we’re changing our name to Young Sounds UK. It encapsulates the scope of our work and will further increase our reach to the young people we’re here for. Meeting their needs and supporting their musical ambitions will continue to be central to everything we do!’
Since its founding in 1998, the charity has worked with more than 5,000 young musicians, with notable alumni including Jess Gillam and BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 Deschanel Gordon. As Young Sounds UK, the charity will continue to offer its Financial Awards programme and its ‘Connectors’ initiative – offering a point of contact for young talent facing financial barriers in music hubs around the UK.
The charity, which is an Arts Council England National Portfolio and National Youth Music Organisation, also offers a Furthering Talent instrumental tuition programme in 20 UK regions and an Identifying Talent programme, providing music educators with training to help ‘spot a musical spark’ in their students.
Sir Simon Rattle, the charity’s founding patron said: ‘It’s imperative that young people facing the most obstacles have the help they need to blossom musically, wherever their journey takes them. Music, and the music industry, will be infinitely richer as a result. I don’t doubt that the newly named Young Sounds UK will be able to reach even more young people who need the charity’s help more than ever before. All power to them!’
This article was published in collaboration with Classical Music, a fellow MA Education & Music title. You can view the item on the CM website here.
