Getting the help you need for your children

Are you looking for support for your child's music making?  If they are aged between 5 and 17 and living the UK, we may be able to help you. We run two programmes of direct support for young people, outlined below.  You can also find details of other sources of funding and opportunities at the bottom of this page.

Funding

Annual Awards

Our Awards

Once a year we invite parents/carers of talented young musicians aged 5-17, to apply for up to £2,000 to go towards musical costs. This could be buying an instrument, paying for lessons or travel, buying equipment etc.

This is a means-tested scheme. Families with a gross household income under £30,000 are eligible to make an application.  Families with a household income between £30,000-£40,000 may be eligible to apply, depending on the number of children in the household.

All genres are welcomed and having taken formal exams is not a requirement. This programme is aimed at young people who have made some significant progress in their music making already.  If your child is just starting out in music, then please take a look at our Furthering Talent programme.

As well as funding, we help young musician on the programme by providing access to a range of music making opportunities, such as workshops, performances or mentoring.

Important notice

We're currently making some important changes to our Awards programme, to improve the support we can offer you.

We'll be accepting new applications for funding from later in the spring.  Once open we will have a rolling deadline and you can apply at any time.

New guidelines and eligibility criteria will be published soon.

If you would like to receive a notification when you can apply, or have any specific questions, please click the button below and submit an Awards enquiry form.

We look forward to welcoming your applications soon.  Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Furthering Talent

Furthering Talent programme

Furthering Talent helps young people from the moment the first sparks of musical potential appear; for example, when they've been spotted by their school as doing well in music activities. Children nominated for the programme receive weekly instrumental tuition for a minimum of two academic years, as well as wider help for their musical progression.

We currently run this programme in the following areas around the country: Bradford, Brighton and Hove, Greater Manchester, Hull North West Midlands, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Sheffield. Manchester City and Wiltshire will be joining the programme soon.

Like our annual Awards programme, children are eligible if their parents/carers are on a lower-income. Unlike our Awards programme, however, parents/carers cannot apply directly for their child to take part and the programme works slightly differently in each area. If you would like to know more about Furthering Talent, or to find out if your child could take part, please contact Neil Phillips, our Furthering Talent Programme Manager.  Email: [email protected]. Tel: 07711 953866.

Other help and resources

As a small charity our funding is limited and we cannot directly support all the families of talented young musicians who ask for our help.  We hope that the following resources and information may be helpful to you, whether we can directly help you, or not.

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