The Berkshire Young Musicians Trust (trading as Berkshire Music Trust) is a music education charity operating in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, United Kingdom.

History

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

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. The charity teaches over 6,000 children in schools, bands, orchestras and choirs, and has centres in

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Bracknell Forest, Borough of Bracknell Forest. It l ...

, Newbury, Windsor, Reading and Wokingham. Tuition covers a wide range of instruments, including vocals, guitar, keyboard, percussion, brass, strings and woodwind in a range of styles, and composition. 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 Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Sing-along Cafe and Dementia Sing-along Cafe.

Events

In 2007, the charity's choir appeared at the BBC Proms, and alongside

Southbank Sinfonia Southbank Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra founded in 2002. Composed of young professionals from around the world, each year it brings together 33 graduate musicians for a programme of performance and professional development. The annual f ...

at the

Windsor Festival {{unreferenced, date=August 2011 The Windsor Festival was founded in 1969 with Yehudi Menuhin and Ian Hunter as artistic directors and Laurence West as executive chairman. The original idea for the festival was put forward by Hunter to the Dean of ...

. In 2014, the organisation was awarded a grant from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. On 1 May 2016, around 1,500 of the Berkshire Maestros students performed a concert at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

. Primary school choirs from West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead performed songs from musicals such as ''

Mamma Mia! Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent *Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlemen ...

'', ''

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before op ...

'' and ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

''. On 19 October 2018, the Bracknell concert band played to Elizabeth II at

The Lexicon, Bracknell The Lexicon is a retail and leisure complex located in Bracknell, Berkshire. It was part of a wider regeneration project in the town, which saw a third of its centre demolished. The Lexicon was then constructed on the site and opened in 2017. At ...

. In 2023, the charity's county choir and string ensemble played at

St George's Chapel St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

at Windsor Castle culminating in a performance of '' Zadok the Priest''.

References

External links

* * * Music charities based in the United Kingdom Charities based in Berkshire 1982 establishments in England Organizations established in 1982 {{charity-stub