One unexpected discovery today: the list of so many familiar names who have through the financial support of the charity Awards for Young Musicians benefited during their development.
AYM supports young musical talent with financial support helping them overcome the financial and social barriers that might stop them from reaching their potential. It’s a charity that depends on donations.
What surprises me is who, throughout the charity’s relatively young 20 year life, the alumni of recipients are.
People like composer Gavin Higgins, saxophonist Jess Gillam, and clarinettist Julian Bliss. All of them, in the relatively small world of classical music, household names. There is an assumption I hold I hadn’t previously realised that those who are established now had an ‘easy’ life getting to that stage they’re at now. That they didn’t perhaps hints at what has changed in recent years in recent years, changes that perhaps have gone unnoticed and uncelebrated before now.
No surprise then (and good for them) that Awards for Young Musicians are taking advantage of Milos’ forthcoming new release on Decca to gain credit for their contribution to the U.K. music education scene, by highlighting a Zoom session the guitarist is holding for youngsters interested in the life of a classical musician.
The session will take place online on Monday 12th April 2021, and will feature young people supported by the charity Awards for Young Musicians (AYM). AYM encouraged MILOŠ early in his career and welcomed the guitar legend as Patron in 2014.
Greater people than I advocate delivering a realistic message to the next generation: it’s grim right now. But, for those who choose to drink from a glass that is consistently half full, maybe the message is that it’s changing and there will be different opportunities in the future and WE NEED YOU.
