Music for Youth

 
Music for Youth is the world’s largest youth music festival. For nearly four decades Music for Youth has been showcasing the eclectic and energetic mix of musical styles created and performed by young people.

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Introducing Lincoln Abbots - Chief Executive, Music for Youth

"Music for Youth is a genuine celebration of young people’s musicmaking."



Lincoln Abbotts was appointed Chief Executive of Music for Youth in April 2008, replacing the charity’s founder, Larry Westland, who retired after 37 years. He has 18 years’ experience as a manager, musician, consultant, tutor and workshop leader, including devising young people’s music programmes for the BBC Proms and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

“My dad is an artist and a musician. I have a clear memory that at home there were two instruments: a flute and a clarinet. My dad played both. My older brother had already taken up the clarinet so by default I started the flute. It naturally felt like my instrument. I grew up in Staffordshire and can still remember, aged 12 or 13, travelling with the Staffordshire Youth Wind Orchestra to the Royal Albert Hall to be part of the Music for Youth Festival. I played in one piece and it was really inspiring. Now, many years later, here I am running the organisation that made it possible. 

Music for Youth is a genuine celebration of young people’s musicmaking. If you look at the programme for the Schools Prom or the Regional or National festivals you will see enormous eclecticism and excitement. There might be a gospel choir, a brass band, musical theatre, a chamber orchestra, a sitar player. I don’t think there’s a style of music that isn’t represented. And it’s all underpinned by quality.

Music for Youth is as much a learning experience as a performance one. If you treat children as professionals they react very positively to that. Music is a fantastic outlet for creativity. Young people have a lack of inhibitions and are not rule-bound. They are very willing to experiment and let things happen. I want Music for Youth to encourage and celebrate this innovation, giving them the chance to present what they have created to other people, which has a huge transformational potential. If you can stand up and play your piece to your peers, your ability to communicate with confidence is hugely expanded.

Larry [Westland] started this organisation 37 years ago and has steered it ever since, so it’s a big cultural change having me here. Music for Youth has a young, dynamic team with lots of ideas and I want more people to know about what we do. We work with an enormous range of young people, but there are still many more in this country who don’t get a chance to see live music-making or the opportunity to learn an instrument. That’s what I’d like to be doing something about.”

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Case Study: Varshika Patel, 14 (MfY)

Varshika Patel, 14, from Leeds, plays with the Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows, a city-wide steel band for young people, and the Leeds Silver Doves, the Sparrows’ sister steel chamber band. The Doves recently played at Music for Youth’s Regional Festival in Harrogate and have been asked to perform at the National Festival this year.

“Everyone at my primary school played steel pans and I decided to join in year six when I was 10. It just sounded interesting. When you are little and you see all the older kids playing you want to be involved. I was a bit like, ‘What if I mess up?’ but once I started playing I liked it very much.

“I started playing with the Sparrows when I moved school and progressed to the Doves, which is a chamber band of about eight players. I don’t have my own pans but Victoria (Jaquiss, the band leader) owns a few steel drums and the school owns a few so I practice at school once a week. I’d like to buy some but they are expensive so I’m hoping to save up.

“People from different schools across Leeds are in the band. It’s cool because you get to meet people you wouldn’t have met, you make friends in the band and once a week you get to hang out together. You all know each other and you all have music in common. It’s cool because you are all young, you have your future ahead of you. I see other players and I think, ‘Wow, they are really good. I want to be like them’.

“When we all come together and perform it’s quite amazing. It does sound really, really good. We’ve done lots of gigs, especially at Christmas when there are lots of requests. I love the variety of things we play, from traditional calypso road marches to stuff that’s in the charts now like Coldplay, Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chiefs.

“It was especially cool playing to a big audience when we took part in the Music for Youth Regional Festival in Harrogate. You can see how much you have changed and improved by getting the chance to perform in front of so many people. It was nerve wracking at first but I’ve got quite used to it.

“The band is important to me. Music is now probably my main hobby and that’s down to them. I wouldn’t have thought of playing a musical instrument because it seemed too hard and I thought I’d never be able to do something like that. And my parents weren’t brought up playing musical instruments and having an appreciation for music. But it’s made me think I can.”

Visit the official Music for Youth website
www.mfy.org.uk