Programmes
Introduction
Inspired by the joy of music we reinvest our income by partnering with like-minded organisations across the globe to help people start or continue their journey with music. We support and champion music education both in the UK and around the world.
A key element of our reinvestment in music education is our programme activity, which you can find out more about here.
Our composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education, provides emerging composers with opportunities to develop their skills in writing to a brief, both for exam syllabuses and within broader educational contexts. Composers on the programme receive dedicated mentoring from leading educational composers, as well as specialist support from educators and ABRSM staff as they complete a series of compositional tasks.
Participants also benefit from opportunities to meet and establish connections with our partner organisations, including the National Open Youth Orchestra, National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain, National Youth Jazz Orchestra, National Youth Choir, Royal Philharmonic Society and others.
The programme is a key strand of our Diversity and Inclusion Plan and supports our commitment to both inspiring the next generation of musicians and to commissioning music from composers from a greater diversity of backgrounds. Following a successful pilot in 2021 the composer mentoring programme has become a regular feature of our programme activities.
While ABRSM exams are taken by people of any age, the majority of candidates are children and young people. In 2023 we established our first ever UK Youth Advisory Board, comprising three sub-groups of people between the ages of 10 and 25, to ensure the voices of the many children and young people we serve are heard within the organisation.
The Youth Advisory Board helps to shape the future of ABRSM, ensuring our products and services remain relevant, accessible and inclusive. It meets every six weeks during term time and feeds directly into our work through our Music Education Advisory Committee, which meets three times a year and comprises a diverse group of colleagues from across the music education sector.
Applications for our 2024-25 UK Youth Advisory Board are open from Monday 20 May and close on Monday 1 July. For further information, including how to apply, please click here.
Play On is our sponsorship fund for organisations based outside the UK.
Play On is helping us to support a greater number and wider variety of organisations around the world than ever before. It's managed on our behalf by The Commonwealth Resounds, an officially accredited music organisation established in 2005. They connect musical cultures and promote initiatives and partnerships in Commonwealth countries, with a focus on music education and composition.
Organisations can apply for our 2025 Play On fund from 1 October to 15 November 2024. For more information, visit The Commonwealth Resounds website.