I am extremely excited to be joining the board as their alumni trustee this year, having been supported by Young Sounds UK and experienced their amazing work first hand. In a world where everything is getting harder, it is important to support people from all background and show that arts are for everyone. It's privilege to have the opportunity to give back in a time where the arts is not being pushed nearly enough!

Morro Barry started playing the tuba at the age of 8 in a local brass band. At 14, he began studying at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and became the principal tuba of the National Youth Brass Band, later joining the National Youth Orchestra in 2022. He also performed the Vaughan Williams tuba concerto at the Royal Festival Hall with the Chineke! Junior Orchestra. Currently, he is studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Ben Thompson. He holds the Skinners' Lawrence Atwell Scholarship and was recently appointed alumni trustee for Young Sounds UK.

Thanks to Young Sounds, I could continue my piano lessons and study the subject I love at A-Level. Now I’m studying Music at the University of Edinburgh with knowledge and confidence I would never have without their help, from workshops in music-based mentoring and identifying potential to building great connections and learning how to network. Now that I’m an alumna trustee I can’t wait to give others the same support I was given, making meaningful change to people’s lives, and I’m excited to see where we’ll go next!

Every time I applied to Young Sounds for help with funding my violin lessons, I wrote on the application form that my goal was to inspire others and to bring music to people who otherwise would not have been able to access it. Throughout my undergraduate degree, I worked on a diverse array of projects in the community, from sharing in the first musical experiences of babies and toddlers who sparkle with rhythm as they begin to make sense of the world, to collaborating with elders who provide new perspectives on our society through their music-making. As I worked on these projects, I began to feel that my music-making was achieving the goals I had laid out in those Young Sounds application forms. I went on to study a master’s degree in community music and am informed by this practice in all of my work as a musician.

Since 2018, I have worked on Young Sound's Connect and Talent To Talent programmes, mentoring young musicians, capturing their voices at events, and creating new music with them in which they compose and improvise sometimes for the very first time. I feel immensely proud of what these programmes have achieved and relish the opportunity to work on the ground with these young people, supporting their growth as musicians. In addition to this work with the young musicians, I provide administrative support to Helen Borg at Bradford Music & Arts Service, working with her to deliver the Connect programme in this area.

I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck in as this year’s Alumni Trustee, a position in which I feel very privileged to now hold having been an Award winner some 7 years ago. I’m excited to have an input as a young, black female musician and educator. In the wake of the recent pandemic which has severely affected the arts sector, this year is very significant in giving talent a chance during such unprecedented circumstances. I’m excited to be on the Board at this time!

Young Sounds UK supported Jess from the ages of 13 to 17, helping with the cost of her Saturday studies at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music and enabling her to access a host of musical opportunities, including performing at prestigious venues on the charity’s behalf. In 2016, at the age of 17, Jess made history as the first saxophonist to win the Woodwind Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year. She then reached the Grand Final at London’s Barbican Hall, and performed Michael Nyman’s “Where the Bee Dances” with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, to widespread critical acclaim. In 2017 she made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall, where she performed as a soloist with both the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Since becoming an Alumna of our Thrive programme at age 18, Jess has continued her connection with the charity by becoming a mentor to younger musicians on our Arts Council England-funded peer-mentoring programme, Talent to Talent; now she is our youngest patron. Young Sounds turned 25 in 2023, as did Jess!

Born in Hackney, Deschanel was supported by our Connect programme with funding for jazz piano lessons and mentoring from a professional jazz musician from 2009 until 2013. He graduated from Trinity Laban in 2020 with first class honours and subsequently won the prestigious BBC Young Jazz Musician in November 2020. In his new role as our Alumni Patron, Deschanel will support our work in a range of ways, from leading master classes for young jazz musicians to performing on our behalf.

“Young Sounds UK's help with the costs of piano lessons during my teenage years was absolutely crucial to my musical development, as was the amazing mentoring I had too. I’ll always remember other musical experiences Young Sounds enabled as well, such as a visit to the Royal Festival Hall with other Connect students to see pianist Emmanuel Ax perform. It’s great to be able to give something back now as a Patron!”

Duncan became a patron in 2012 saying: “It’s just a thrill to have quickly changed around from being a beneficiary to being able to give something back. I wouldn’t be able to be where I am or follow my musical dreams were it not for charities like Young Sounds UK. It’s so important for young musicians who don’t have the means to be given those chances. It’s a privilege and a thrill. It’s really exciting.”

Sought after as both conductor and composer for an increasingly exciting range of projects around the globe, recent highlights include with the Frankfurt Radio, London Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk, Swedish Radio, Bamberg, Trondheim and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, BBC, Dresden and New Japan Philharmonics, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Glyndebourne Opera, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), New York.

If you’d have spoken to the child me and said one day you’ll be writing for the Royal Opera House, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Growing up in the Forest of Dean as part of a brass-banding family, music for Gavin Higgins was initially “just what we did” and he remembers wishing he could stay home and read books about dinosaurs rather than go to band practice. It was in his early teens that Gavin recalls first being empowered by music. “I was suffering with Tourette’s syndrome and OCD and music was an important tool for me. When I was playing my French horn the tics and invasive thoughts would completely stop.”

It was later whilst at the Royal Northern College of Music that Gavin fell in love with composing. “It’s been an exciting five years” he reflects on his career since graduating. “I became Rambert Dance company’s first ever composer in residence, I’ve written the opening piece for the Last Night of The Proms and I’m currently in the middle of writing an opera for the Royal Opera House.” The project closest to his heart was writing the ballet “Dark Arteries” composed for brass band. “It brings together various parts of my life: my love of dance, brass bands and the mining tradition that my family grew up in.”

Part of our 20th anniversary project: My Musical Journey

Originally from Bradford, we began supporting Caius at the age of 15 when he was in need of funding for piano lessons, essential to his development as an organist. Already very active as a music educator across the country, Caius was an Organ Scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and is currently Director of Music at Worcester College, Oxford.

“I know first hand how vital it is to create musical opportunities for young people. I am living proof of this; as a recently diagnosed neuro-diverse student with dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, and possibly on the autistic spectrum. My involvement with music throughout secondary school helped me focus and subsequently engage educationally. I hope my perspective as a former Thrive recipient will be valuable to the Board.”

My relationship with Young Sounds UK began in 2015 as winner of the Robert Lewin Scholarship. Their support opened numerous doors for me that would have otherwise been out of reach: from being able to purchase my beloved French horn, to providing performance and mentoring opportunities. Young Sounds is a catalyst for building confidence, something which enabled me to dive into the world of amateur and semi-professional orchestral playing, and which profoundly impacted my non-musical life too. It was fantastic to re-engage with the work of Young Sounds in 2021 as a mentor for Talent-to-Talent! I am really looking forward to giving back to an organisation which has given me so much, and I can’t wait to support the ins and outs of all things Young Sounds!