Awards for Young Musicians Annual Awards

Overview

A total of appproximately £100,000 is paid out every year through this scheme. The scheme support instrumentalists making music in any genre, and they key criteria are financial need and exceptional musical talent and potential.

Criteria

Age

The young musician must be between the ages of 5 and 17 on 31 August of the Award year.

Residency

• The young person has been resident in the British Islands for the past three years
• The young person is a national of a member state of the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland and is the child of a migrant worker;
• The young person is a refugee or the child of a refugee who has not been ordinarily resident outside the British Islands since being recognised as a refugee or granted leave to enter or remain in the British Islands.

Musical study

The young musician must be learning a musical instrument. AYM is not able to support costs associated with vocal studies. Applicants can tell AYM about more than one instrument if they wish.

Musical genre

They accept applications from young musicians playing any musical genres. Past Award winners include: folk musicians, rock musicians, classical musicians, Indian classical musicians, jazz musicians, pop musicians and many more. You may want to read about some Example profiles of Award winners to get an idea of some of the young people whom AYM support.

Evidence of musical talent/potential

they are looking for evidence of exceptional musical talent/potential. Their Awards programme is not aimed at beginner-level musicians, nor do they expect all applicants to have taken top-level grades or be members of national ensembles. They understand that everyone is on their own musical journey and the application form has therefore been designed to discover the strengths of each young musician.

As part of the application they will ask you to upload a video of the young person playing their instrument. This can be filmed on a mobile phone, tablet, camera or other device. Visit the Video Guidance Notes for more information.

Evidence of financial need
AYM fundraise continuously in order to be able to provide as many Awards as possible. their funds are limited and they will prioritise applicants demonstrating the greatest financial need in addition to musical talent/potential.

Their Awards Programme is means-tested. They apply similar guidelines to the Government's Music and Dance scheme. Their means-testing calculation is based upon the annual, gross, family income of the home in which the young person mainly lives; they take into consideration the number of dependent children within that household.

The following guidelines may help you decide whether to progress with an application:

• Your gross annual family income is £30,000 or under: you are likely to be eligible to apply
• Your gross annual family income is between £30,000 - £40,000: you may be eligible to apply, depending on the number of dependent children within the household
• Your gross annual family income is above £40,000: it is unlikely that you will be eligible to apply for funding.

Awards can help with costs including:

• Instrumental tuition costs
• Buying or hiring a musical instrument
• Purchasing instrumental accessories such as cases, bows, reeds etc.
• Fees for long-term music courses such as Saturday school fees
• Travelling for long-term music courses
• Ensemble membership fees
• Purchasing sheet music
• Exam entry fees
• Audition fees and associated travel costs

AYM will only help with the following items in exceptional circumstances:

• Holiday music courses: We will only support the cost of a holiday course if it offers specific training that the young musician could not otherwise access.
• Ensemble membership fees: Where the ensemble offers specific training that the young musician could not otherwise access and where the ensemble do not provide their own bursary scheme.
• Computer software: We will only support the purchase of computer software when there is clear evidence that the software will support the musical progression of the young person, for example if they are studying composition or music production.

Example profile of award winners can be viewed here

If you would like to apply for a musical cost not listed above, they recommend you contact their Awards Team before making an application here

For FAQ's you can visit the website here