Interview with Hester Cockcroft, Director of Awards for Young Musicians, June 5th 2009

Who are Awards for Young Musicians?

Awards for Young Musicians (AYM) was set up as a charity in August 1998. An instrument collector called Robert Lewin left a collection of very high quality instruments in his will, on the instruction that they be sold to create a fund which would help support the development of the UK’s most talented young musicians from lower income families, and so the organisation was born.

Why is there such a need for Awards for Young Musicians in the UK?

It’s simple: supporting and developing a talented young musician to help them fulfil their creative potential is extremely expensive, whatever kind of music they play. Huge investment is needed: hours dedicated to practice, travel to be taught by the best available teachers, specialised courses to expand musical horizons and build on skills, and the purchase or loan of high quality instruments. Therefore families on lower incomes often find it impossible to find the money for all these costs.

What does A-Y-M do?

We help! By fundraising from a wide range of sources, we run an annual Awards programme, where £50,000 is distributed to the most talented young musicians in the greatest financial need.

We also offer a year round advice and information service for young musicians, their families and teachers and we’re now experimenting with a number of new programmes too. These include identifying and supporting young people whose talent is only just emerging as a result of the music making they’ve done in school, developing training for music teachers and working more closely with orchestras and other music organisations to help give young musicians more musical opportunities.

What age groups do you work with?

We support young people between 5 and 17 years old.

What types of awards do you offer?

Awards are offered at a range of different levels, from £200 to £2000. We ask applicants to decide what cost they need help with most and why: so they might need a new instrument to help them progress even faster in their playing, lessons with a really great teacher, access to a summer course to develop their ensemble playing or help with the costs of travelling to a weekend music school. Whatever the need is we’re here to help!

How do you apply?

To apply a young person needs to show proof of financial need (we ask for details of family income). They must also show strong evidence of musical talent and real motivation. If they have taken music exams then excellent exam results and examiners’ reports are helpful, but it doesn’t matter if they haven’t taken exams, as long as they can show that they have real musical ability. We also ask the young musician’s music teacher to fill in a reference form and send it to us separately so that we can get their perspective.

How many young people do you help a year?

This year we helped 67 young people from all parts of the UK - from Northern Ireland to the Shetland Islands!

What are some of the popular instruments that young people ask you for support with?

This varies from year to year. Because we support all genres of music from classical to rock and folk the range of instruments we help young people purchase varies a lot too. So this year we’ve helped young musicians buy everything from drumkits and saxophones to guitars, cellos and Northumbrian small pipes.

What advice would you give to young musicians?

Never stop working and never stop believing that you can make a career in music, but do appreciate that it will take a great deal of work and perseverance. You might become a millionaire rock star or concert pianist – equally you might become an education officer for an orchestra, or a really skilled musician who works in disadvantaged communities to literally transform people’s lives through music. Success in music has many different faces and they’re all equally valid and equally important.

How can we find out more about Awards for Young Musicians and how to get support?

Visit our website at www.a-y-m.org.uk or call us on 0117 9049906. Our 2010 Awards will be open for applications from October of this year when you’ll be able to access all the information you need about how to apply from our website.