Young at Heart is a £1 million appeal to enable 1000 musically talented young Londoners to have a high-class music education

Centre for Young Musicians

Students at the Centre for Young Musicians

Thwarted in its plans to present a 50th anniversary concert at the Barbican, the Centre for Young Musicians (CYM) - a division of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama that provides under-18s with high-class music tuition - will launch its anniversary appeal on-line at 7pm on Wednesday 10 June.

Young at Heart is a £1 million appeal to enable 1000 musically talented young Londoners to have a high-class music education that would not otherwise be possible.

In celebration of CYM’s 50th year, Young at Heart will launch with contributions from past alumni including Vincent Lindsey-Clarke, one of CYM’s first students and now on the faculty, as well as former students: Christopher Warren-Green, John Lenehan, Vashti Hunter and Django Bates. The 90-minute presentation will also feature video material from 50 current CYM students.

The Centre for Young Musicians’ Saturday Centre has provided over 400 students a year with tutoring from leading London musicians since 1970. For this term, all 450 of CYM’s weekly classes - 1 to 1 instrumental lessons, ensemble know-how, choral classes and musicianship – have moved online.

The Foundation for Young Musicians (FYM) - CYM’s supporting charity – provides assistance with fees as appropriate to individual cases in the belief that music education should be available to all, irrespective of means to pay, privilege or chance.

The cost for a year’s tuition at CYM is approximately £2000. To date FYM has raised in excess of £10 million to enable young Londoners access to high quality music education. CYM Saturday Centre meets for 32 weeks of the school year and caters for young musicians aged 5 to 18, 80% of whom attend state schools.

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