An evening to remember at Wilton’s Music Hall

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On Monday 29 October 2018 we celebrated our 20th anniversary in style at Wilton’s Music Hall in East London. AYM Angels, donors, partners, Alumni and friends of the charity were invited to come together for an evening of music and celebration.  The night also saw the launch of our My Musical Journey anniversary project.

An extraordinary line-up!

Co-hosted by AYM Patron Zeb Soanes and Hannah Conway (who was also our Musical Director), it featured solo and ensembles performances by current and past AYM Awardees, plus a special choir from our Brighton and Hove Furthering Talent programme (photographed above).

AYM Alumni: Jess Gillam (20), saxophone, Tom Pritchard (20), percussion, Rob Burton (19), saxophone, Elodie Chousmer-Howelles (19), violin, Marie Sato (18), flute

Current Award winners: Jacky Zhang (10), piano, Oliver Simpson (13), cello, Amber Emson (17), violin, Natasha O’Flynn (15), viola

Professional accompanist: Zeynep Özsuca

The cake!

A extraordinary anniversary cake was donated for the celebration by one of our generous AYM Angels.  In pride of place on top of the cake was a sugar paste “Uncle Bob.”  It was on Bob Lewin’s legacy that AYM was originally founded back in 1998 and so we have a lot to thank him for!  Here’s Michael Lewin, Bob’s nephew and our founding trustee, cutting the cake with our youngest soloist, Jacky Chang.

The finale!

In summer 2018 we commissioned composer James Redwood to create a brand new piece of music for the finale of the concert. We wanted the piece to bring together all of this evening’s performers. As luck would have it James is based in Brighton, one of our partner Music Education Hubs for Furthering Talent. In the summer term James ran two composition days with Furthering Talent participants at Carton Hill and West Blatchington Primary Schools and so was delighted to revisit the schools this term to work with the same children to create the finale. With a little bit of help from Hannah Conway, our Furthering Talent choir taught the audience some of the lyrics they’d written, so that everyone could join in!

“Music is a part of me
Music’s at the heart of me”

To see more photographs from the event, browse the gallery below.  All photos are (c) Edward Webb 2018.

For information about becoming an AYM Angel click here.