Berkshire Music Trust

The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust (trading as Berkshire Music Trust) is a music education charity operating in Berkshire, United Kingdom.[1]

Berkshire Music Trust
The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust
Formation25 October 1982 (1982-10-25)
Legal statusLimited company, Registered charity
PurposeExtra-curricular music education
HeadquartersReading
Region served
Berkshire
Membership
Private
Dawn Wren
Jon Carroll
Main organ
Board of trustees
Staff
~260
Websiteberksmusictrust.org.uk
Formerly called
Berkshire Maestros

History

The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust (BYMT) was founded in 1982. Between 2006 and 2023 it traded as Berkshire Maestros,[2] after which it was rebranded the Berkshire Music Trust.[3]

Description

The charity's aim is to bring music to a wider audience, and encourage children to play a musical instrument, sing, or play music in a group with others.[4] The charity teaches over 6,000 children in schools, bands, orchestras and choirs, and has centres in Bracknell, Newbury, Windsor, Reading and Wokingham.[5] Tuition covers a wide range of instruments, including vocals, guitar, keyboard, percussion, brass, strings and woodwind in a range of styles, and composition.[6]

Following the renaming ceremony coinciding with 40th birthday celebrations in the summer of 2023, Berkshire Music Trust adopted a new strap-line, "Making Music for Everyone", signalling their intent to expand their offerings to all ages in the Berkshire community, building upon their Parkinson's Sing-along Cafe and Dementia Sing-along Cafe.[7]

Events

In 2007, the charity's choir appeared at the BBC Proms,[8] and alongside Southbank Sinfonia at the Windsor Festival.[9] In 2014, the organisation was awarded a grant from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.[10] On 1 May 2016, around 1,500 of the Berkshire Maestros students performed a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Primary school choirs from West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead performed songs from musicals such as Mamma Mia!, Oliver! and The Jungle Book.[11] On 19 October 2018, the Bracknell concert band played to Elizabeth II at The Lexicon, Bracknell.[12] In 2023, the charity's county choir and string ensemble played at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle culminating in a performance of Zadok the Priest.[13]

References
  1. "The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust". Charity Commission. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  2. "Berkshire Maestros - The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust". wokingham.gov.uk. Wokingham Borough Council. 28 October 2020.
  3. "New name for Berkshire Maestros revealed at garden party". Newbury Today. 19 July 2023. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  4. "Berkshire Maestros fundraises to bring music to toddlers and babies". Bracknell News. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  5. "Graduate Teacher Programme 2020". berkshiremaestros.org.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  6. "Berkshire Maestros". Slough Borough Council. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  7. "Events outside Reading". What's On Reading. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  8. "Proms 2007 Prom 57". BBC. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  9. "Choral events". Windsor Festival 2007. Windsor Festival. 2007. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2009.
  10. "Berkshire Maestros". Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  11. "More than a thousand Berkshire Maestros children perform at the Royal Albert Hall". Getreading.co.uk. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  12. "The Queen visits The Bracknell Lexicon". inyourarea.co.uk. 19 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  13. "BERKSHIRE MAESTROS". Windsor Festival. Archived from the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
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