The final of the 65th ROSL (Royal Over-Seas League) Annual Music Competition took place at London’s Cadogan Hall on Wednesday 7 June 2017. The centrepiece of ROSL ARTS‘ year-round programme of events, the competition offers more than £75,000 in awards with a £10,000 first prize for solo performers and two chamber ensemble awards of £10,000. The Gold Medal Prize of £10,000 was awarded by by HRH Princess Alexandra to bass trombonist, James Buckle, the first time the prize has been won by a brass player in the competition’s 65-year history. All the section final winners as well as the winner of the accompanist…
New Music charity Sound and Music has launched an appeal to raise £25,000 by July 2018 to create a bursary fund supporting young composers attending the organisation’s annual residential Summer School for Young Composers. The fund is being created in memory of the much-loved composer Steve Martland (1954-2013). 75 young composers aged 14-18 attend the Sound and Music Summer School – the only course of its kind in the UK – each year. The event celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018 and so far over 500 young composers have taken part. The creation of the new bursary fund will ensure that Sound and Music can continue…
Disability music charity Drake Music is inviting disabled musicians from the South West of England to apply for paid training opportunities as part of the organisation’s Emergent: A Music Legacy programme. Emergent: A Music Legacy Trainees will provide paid ‘on the job’ training for six emerging disabled musicians per year. These will be rolled out across the country and offer training and mentoring from established music leaders, including the use of tech in music. According to the charity, this is an opportunity for deaf/disabled musicians at or near the beginning of their careers to develop new skills within the facilitation…
This year’s Music for Youth National Festival runs from 4-8 July in Birmingham. With brass, classical, folk, choral and contemporary renditions from around 8,000 young musicians at venues such as Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre and various Fringe Stages across the city, performances include an evening hosted by award-winning saxophonist and MC, Soweto Kinch, featuring some of the UK’s best young jazz combos and big bands. Other highlights include Festival Fringe Workshops run by: musicians from the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Plymouth choral specialists, Dominic Peckham and Esther Jones, and…
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) postgraduate viola player, Megan Jowett, has won the 25th annual Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise music prize of £10,000 for Make the Paint Dance, a project combining music and art to inspire children. Inspired by the artist, Marc Chagall, and the music of Maurice Ravel, Make the Paint Dance began life as Megan Jowett’s Vocational Project module. After discussing it with Head of Ensemble Performance, Zoe Smith, she took it forward by talking to the College’s outreach and development departments. Through a series of workshops in local Gabalfa Primary School, children were able to…
The BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) which distributes funds raised through the BRIT Awards, has announced its support for Music Support, a new charity which provides help for anyone in the music industry suffering from addiction, emotional or mental health issues. Alongside a donation towards its day-to-day operations, The BRIT Trust funding is contributing to a Safe Tent initiative developed by Music Support in conjunction with Festival Republic and Live Nation in time for this Summer’s major festivals. The Safe Tents will be staffed by Music Support volunteers and will act as places of…
Submissions are open for Britten Sinfonia‘s annual competition for unpublished composers of any age and background who are resident in the UK, OPUS2017. Now entering its fifth year, the competition gives composers the chance to receive a professional commission as part of the orchestra’s award-winning At Lunch series. OPUS2017 brings in pianist-composer-producer, Nik Bärtsch, from the jazz/funk scene, together with a mix of Britten Sinfonia’s musicians, to form the ensemble for which the OPUS competition winner will be invited to write. The orchestra hopes that working with a leading light from a non-classical field will introduce a new and exciting…
Children from schools across Portsmouth descended on Guildhall Square on 15 June 2017 to smash a Guinness World Records® record for the largest Djembe Drum Ensemble. 900 Infant, Junior and Secondary school pupils took part in the challenge as part of BBC Music Day, beating the previous record of 476 drummers. The children spent weeks training for the record attempt which was organised by Portsmouth Music Hub with music written by one of the hub’s composition team. The young drummers were joined by Taiko drummers and a Samba band with a special finale performance by the Corps of Drums from the…
MUSIC:ED reviews the EYFS percussion resource from Drums for Schools
Lord Winston, Chairman of the RCM Council, and Professor Colin Lawson CBE, Director of the Royal College of Music (RCM), marked the start of an ambitious redevelopment of the RCM’s Kensington campus on Tuesday 13 June 2017. After a performance by three RCM trumpeters, Lord Winston planted the first spade in the ground in the courtyard which sits at the heart of the conservatoire. Renowned architect, John Simpson, has reimagined the RCM site with major enhancements to benefit students, staff and visitors. The redevelopment will be funded by a £40 million philanthropic campaign which has already raised 60% of its…
