On Wednesday evening 6 April at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire Music Service, with BBC Radio Shropshire, held a sell out concert featuring Shropshire’s finest young musicians. Four young musicians performed four very different concertos accompanied by Shropshire Sinfonia and conducted by Robert Wysome.

 

Pictured are the four finalists, left to right, Holly Scutt (violin) aged 16 studying at Shrewsbury High School  James Carter (trombone) aged 17 studying at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, Rosie Powell Davies (cello) aged 18 studying at Shrewsbury High School and Freya Little (bassoon) aged 17 studying Shrewsbury High School.

 

The winner, Rosie Powell Davies, is in her final year at Shrewsbury High School, studying music as one of her A levels.  She has been offered a place to read Music at New College, Oxford in September.  She began learning the piano at the age of 6 and, a year later, started studying the cello with John Fairbank, achieving cello grade 8 distinction, aged 14, and the Sheila C Freeman prize awarded by the ABRSM.  Studying with Susie Allan she gained piano grade 8 distinction, aged 15.  Rosie currently leads the Shropshire Youth Cello Ensemble and the cello sections of Shrewsbury High School Orchestra and Senior String Ensemble.  During 2010-11 she has been performing with the CBSO Youth Orchestra in the Symphony Hall, Birmingham.  She has also performed regularly in Europe with an international youth orchestra, BISYOC.  Last year, Rosie was selected to play for cello and piano master-classes with Julian Lloyd Webber and Vanessa Latouche.  In April 2010, she reached the finals of both the Shropshire Concerto Competition (playing the Kabalevsky Cello Concerto) and the Gregynog Young Musician Competition.  Her cello is from the Dresden School, dated around 1885.

 

The adjudicator, Professor George Caird, praised all four finalists for their remarkable performances, claiming the decision was like a photo finish, with nothing between them in terms of the quality and maturity of their performances.

 

Alan Atkin (Manager - Shropshire Music Service) said, “This is a marvellous opportunity to showcase the outstanding talent of young musicians in Shropshire.”

 

Keith Havercroft (Music Adviser, Shropshire Council) praised the work of the peripatetic teaching staff at Shropshire Music Service for their continued outstanding contribution to the lives and learning of all young musicians in Shropshire.

 

BBC Radio Shropshire recorded the Concerto Competition and it will be broadcast at 7pm on Wednesday 13 April

To see more photographs of the finalists, learn more about the Concerto Competition and the work of the Music Service in Shropshire join Shropshire Music Service on Facebook, or contact Shropshire Music Service on 01743 874145

Key points from the Henley Review and the Government’s response:

- The annual Music Grant to remain at £82.5m for 2011-12 – no cut

- This award remains protected for music education

- The Department of Education (DfE) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) will work with the Arts Council and other key stakeholders, including the FMS, to prepare a ‘National Plan for Music Education’ to come into effect in 2012 -13

- One of the National Plan’s key priorities will be to ensure that a structure is developed that enshrines the best mix of organisations and services to access funding available at a local level. These services will be identified in the National Plan and will embrace music and wider arts providers.

Virginia Haworth-Galt, Chief Executive of the FMS, said: “I believe this is a landmark report. As music teachers, we see every day the outstanding contribution music makes to a child’s development. Darren Henley has argued passionately for the value of music education and has provided clear recommendations to ensure that children, wherever they live in England, can benefit from it.

“We congratulate the Government for responding so positively and listening to the FMS and others across the sector. We welcome the news that Music Services will receive the same level of funding from the Government and hope that this support will continue after 2012. We also urge all local authorities to continue their financial support too.

“By backing the report’s recommendation for a ‘National Plan for Music Education’, the Government has also shown its commitment to work with us, schools and all music educators to make Darren Henley’s vision a reality - to provide all children with the music education they deserve.

“This is a huge declaration for music education. We are excited that the FMS’s views on the value of local centres of excellence have been acknowledged. The FMS is looking forward to building on the close relationships we already enjoy with schools and other music partners as we move towards a new era in music and arts provision. To succeed all those involved in music provision must rise to the challenge of working together to deliver a better musical future for our children.”
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Pre-emptive cuts ahead of Government review could do ‘irreparable’ damage

School music services across England and Wales are “holding their breath” for the outcome of a major review into their funding that could result in essential services being axed.

Campaigners have warned that if funding is cut, parents and schools will have to stump up more money for tuition, instrument hire and support services, which will shut out children from poorer families and decimate bands and orchestras.

The Federation of Music Services (FMS) says that pre-emptive cuts, already being publicly proposed by a handful of local authorities as part of wider cost savings, could “irreparably undermine” services even before the findings of the Government-commissioned Henley review are announced at the end of the month.

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18 November 2010

 

The Federation of Music Services (FMS), which represents 98% of all music services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has expressed grave concerns about cuts being announced to services ahead of the completion of the Henley Review of the Funding and Delivery of Music Education.

 

Currently, 65% of local authorities contribute either in cash, kind (administration, buildings etc) or both to music service funding. On average, local authorities contribute 10.5% of total music service budgets. Remaining funding comes from central government’s Music Grant (formerly the Music Standards Fund), parental fees, school and other contributions.

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Pre-emptive budget cuts to our music services by local authorities could trigger unnecessary closures

 

A number of local authorities have indicated imminent and in some cases severe budget reductions. The FMS is very concerned that this pre-emptive programme of cuts could irreparably undermine some services before the whole music education sector has a true measure of its future.

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A teacher who brings music education into classrooms across Liverpool is travelling back from London today after being named as Classic FM’s Peripatetic Music Teacher of the Year.

Jean Tremarco, who has taken part in high profile music events across the city including The Wreck of the Titanic at the Liverpool Philharmonic and Supersing at the Echo Arena, is the Coordinator of Classroom Support at the Liverpool Music Support Service, which is based at Notre Dame Catholic College for the Arts in Everton. (more…)

ABRSM, the world’s leading authority on musical assessment, is to sponsor the Federation of Music Services (FMS) for the academic year September 2010 to August 2011. John Witchell, Chief Executive of FMS, announced the sponsorship agreement at the FMS Conference 2010 in Belfast (16–18 June). The grant will support the ongoing promotion and provision of the 12- month FMS course “Rising with the tide: managing and leading music services in the 21st century”.

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The Federation of Music Services (FMS), the organisation that represents all music services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has announced that Virginia Haworth-Galt is to become its new Chief Executive. She takes up the post on the 9th August 2010.

Ms Haworth-Galt is the first FMS chief executive to come from outside the world of music services and her appointment signals a mood of change within the music education sector as budgets come under scrutiny and streamlining of services moves into sharper focus. (more…)

Mayor’s music education fund

A £100,000 grant was announced this week to seed fund partnerships between local authority music services and orchestras and ensembles in London.  The programme will open in May 2010 and will cover projects in the academic year September 2010 to July 2011.  The aim is to give young people the experience of working with professional musicians, encouraging them to make music in ensembles whilst helping to raise their musical aspirations.  It will also strengthen and deepen the partnership working between London’s music services and the orchestral sector.  The fund will be administered by the GLA in partnership with the Federation of Music Services’ London region, and working closely in the first instance with the Association of British Orchestras (ABO). 

The GLA Music Education Programme steering board will be chaired by Karen Brock, Head of Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service (THAMES).

You can download a copy of the GLA Music Education Strategy here:

Making Music Matter - Music Education Strategy for London 2010-2012

A unique collaboration of 14 West Midlands Music Services, which form the National Sing up Project West Midlands Consortium, was rewarded with a successful Sing Up event held on Monday 26 January at Birmingham’s prestigious Symphony Hall.

The combined event involved over a 3500 KS1 and 2 young singers, and nearly 500 teachers and other adults as part of a huge CPD input, in two singing workshops led by vocal supremo, Lin Marsh, together with singing leaders from each of the authorities. (more…)