An Evening at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians

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On a sunny Tuesday in June, we hosted a fundraising concert at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians. It was wonderful to bring our supporters and friends together to enjoy an evening of music and celebrate the special community we have in Scotland.

The evening featured performances by three young musicians from our Thrive programme. Our first performer was 15-year-old Beatrice, who plays the French horn. She performed Franz Strauss’s Nocturno, Op.7 and Alan Abbott’s Alla Caccia. Beatrice is a boarder at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and alongside her musical studies, she’s also been taking part in a research project with her school science class extracting DNA from daffodil leaves and looking at the links to Alzheimer’s disease. She’ll be representing her class and their findings at the Royal Science Exhibition in London this summer.

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After Beatrice’s performance, Young Sounds Alumna Jennifer Moss gave a speech about her work with us as a Mentor and as the coordinator for our Young People’s Programme Panel (YPPP). This panel is made up of young people on Connect, who meet twice a year to help shape our work. Jennifer shared her journey from receiving our support through Thrive, to training as a mentor with us in our pilot mentoring project Talent to Talent, and her current role mentoring young musicians through Connect. She spoke about the challenges she’s seen young people overcome, and how mentoring plays an essential role in building their confidence and ownership over their musical journey.

Our next performer was 18-year-old Casey, who played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64, i. Allegro molto appassionato. We’ve been supporting Casey for five years and we’re thrilled that she’ll be starting her undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in September. She says:

“It’s always great to perform at a Young Sounds event – the audience are always really nice and friendly, and these performance opportunities are very helpful.” 

Our final performer was 15-year-old Ethan, who spoke about his musical life in Glasgow and his experiences with Young Sounds – including taking part in our chamber music project, Attune, last year. Ethan played two pieces from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.26 in E flat major, Op.81a ‘Les Adieux’, followed by a lively performance of ‘The Serpent’s Kiss’ from William Bolcom’s, The Garden of Eden: Four rags for piano. He says:

“Having an opportunity to perform and tell the audience my story increased my confidence, and I would like to do more! It was a great day and a new experience, and I loved doing it.”

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After the concert, our guests enjoyed more refreshments and lots of conversations! It’s an exciting time for our work in Scotland, as we continue to support more young musicians through our Thrive programme.  

We’re currently supporting 33 young Scottish musicians through Thrive – providing help towards their musical costs and access to a range of musical opportunities. Over the past year, we’ve helped young musicians buy their own instruments so they can keep playing (including two horns, a flute, a trumpet, and a set of bagpipes!), covered travel costs to music lessons, and supported young musicians with the costs of auditioning for Conservatoires.

We’re already looking forward to our next concert in Edinburgh and sharing more updates on our expanding work here.

If you’d like to find out more about joining our community of supporters, you can contact our Development Administrator, Katherine Rigg, on [email protected] or 0300 302 0476.