What is Talent to Talent?

Talent to Talent is AYM’s music-based mentoring programme which combines peer mentoring opportunities with creative music making. Funded by a project grant from Arts Council England, this latest programme builds on the learning from AYM’s 2016 pilot phase of Talent to Talent, which aimed to enable young musicians to take a lead and discover more about their musical selves through sharing ideas and experiences with a mentor or mentee at a different stage in their musical development. The approach grew out of AYM’s Musical Progression Roundtables key finding that there is the need for young people to lead their own musical learning in practice, as well as further research such as the Music Commission goal (March 2019) for young people to be ‘engaged in shaping their own learning pathways.’

Above: A glimpse into the 2016 pilot phase of Talent to Talent

For both phases Talent to Talent was facilitated by expert partners Ben Sandbrook of World Pencil and double bassist Paul Sherman. The 2021 phase, managed by Programme Manager Naomi Wellings, saw AYM working in partnership with four Music Education Hubs AYM already had an ongoing relationship with through their Furthering Talent programme – Sheffield, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Hull. Talent to Talent brought together young musicians from across AYM’s programmes – Award winners, Furthering Talent students and Alumni of the Awards programme, as well as nominated early career musicians from each of the Hubs. Musicians aged 14 and over attended a training session ahead of three days of creative music-making focusing on musical journeys and the three-day projects in each Hub culminated in short performance for family and friends where Covid restrictions allowed.