Applications for Future Talent and the VOCES8 Foundation's 2020-21 Awards are now OPEN!

Apply here

2019 Coombs Scholarship awarded to outstanding cellist Willard

Future Talent mentor Chloe Hanslip joins prestigious list of Ambassadors

Sheku Kanneh-Mason becomes Ambassador for Future Talent

Listening to the needs of young musicians

Supporting and developing future talent

Inspiring young lives through music

Future Talent, co-founded in 2004 by the Duchess of Kent and Nicholas Robinson, supports gifted young musicians up to age 18 from low-income backgrounds who need guidance to enable them to flourish on their musical journey.

We offer help through our Young Musicians Development Programme which provides bespoke performance and development opportunities, guidance and mentoring. We also offer financial assistance for music lessons and courses. We currently support 50 young musicians from all parts of the UK, the majority are on our Development Programme and a few younger musicians are on our Fledgling Programme.

There should be no barriers in providing young people with access to music and we welcome applications each year from talented musicians who are disabled as well as non-disabled.

Support us

We're always on the lookout for individuals and businesses who want to support what we do, whether that's by making a donation, giving us a hand at one of our events, or spreading the word about us on social media!

Donate

Sustained, progressive music education still tends to be the preserve of children born to wealthier parents. Due to financial hardship and lack of opportunity, many young musicians struggle to realise their potential.

Future Talent provides holistic support to young people with exceptional musical talent through mentoring, career advice and performance opportunities in addition to a financial bursary.

Future Talent receives no government funding and relies 100% on the generosity of individuals, trusts and the corporate sector. Can you help us ensure the advancement of these talented young people, giving them an equal chance to realise their musical ambitions?

If you would like to support our work, please see the different levels of donation below.

Friends

Jazz Club: £5+ per month

Classical Club: £25+ per month

Folk Club: £50+ per month

Rock Club: £70+ per month

Patrons

Rhythm: £1,000+ per year (£83.34+ per month)

Melody: £3,000+ per year (£250+ per month)

Harmony: £5,000+ per year (£416.67+ per month)

Amadeus Club: £15,000+ per year (£1,250+ per month)

Click here to donate via Virgin Money Giving

We also accept donations through the following platforms:

Benevity Causes

Charities Trust

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)

Alternatively, you can set up a payment directly to our bank account:

Account Name: FUTURE TALENT MUSICIANS | Account number: 65023319 | Sort code: 40-47-31

Gift Aid

Are you a UK taxpayer? You can add Gift Aid to your donation, giving Future Talent an extra 25p for every £1, at no extra cost to you. Email office@futuretalent.org to request a form.

Volunteer

If you are interested in volunteering for Future Talent, please get in touch, we'd love to hear from you! Send an email to office@futuretalent.org to tell us what skills you can offer and to express your interest.

Isata & Sheku Kanneh-Mason Perform Special Concert for Future Talent

Future Talent Cellist Willard Awarded Prestigious Coombs Scholarship

We raised £41,320 in the Big Give!

Join our talent

Young Musicians Development Programme

Future Talent invites applications to its Young Musicians Development Programme annually from young musicians and singers, across the UK, under the age of 18.

Musicians supported by the YMPD are provided with a financial bursary as well as a range of development and performance opportunities.

By working closely with the families we support, we build lasting relationships to ensure the advice and nurturing we give is relevant to the individual and their circumstances.

Financial assistance can be used to fund a variety of musical costs, including lesson fees, contribution towards instrument purchase/hire, ensemble membership fees and grade fees.

Our performance and development opportunities include individual mentoring sessions, masterclasses and group workshops of all kinds, led by established musicians and music professionals, such as Chloë Hanslip, Clark Tracey, Leslie Howard and Mary Hammond.

Please note: Applications for all awards are now closed, and will reopen in April 2020.

More information

VOCES8 FUTURE TALENT

Future Talent have launched a new initiative with the VOCES8 Foundation to provide opportunities for talented young singers from low-income backgrounds.

New for 2020, the programme will provide places for eight singers aged 16 or 17 and resident in the UK to have bespoke training and performances alongside VOCES8 and Apollo5. It will also offer sustained support for all successful applicants and provide valuable mentoring, career and general music development advice alongside practical musical training.

The eight successful applicants will take part in VOCES8’s 15th anniversary celebrations in 2020 and the VOCES8 International Summer School and Festival in July 2021, amongst other opportunities. Their places will be fully funded, and applications will be means-tested to ensure that the awards are being given to singers who might otherwise find it difficult to access such opportunities.

Applications will open on 28 February and close on 24 April 2020. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to audition in person in June, after which the successful applicants will be announced.

For application forms and more information about the programme, please click below.

More information

"This charity is a gem."

Sting

“Someone taking the time to listen to me and having faith in me, helping me to progress with what I love to do and want to spend my life doing — that’s amazing!”

Future Talent Musician

“We hope to break barriers down. I have seen the power of music as an extraordinary stimulant for growth.”

Katharine Kent

“My experience with Future Talent is that they don't just provide funding and then disappear into the background. They continue to have an input beyond that, providing performance opportunities, inviting you to events and masterclasses, nurturing and tailoring the support they have given you, and generally pointing you in the right direction.”

Future Talent Parent

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself! I have sung at events I could only have dreamed of and I have been introduced to some of the loveliest people I could ever meet!”

Tyler

About us

Future Talent has been inspiring young lives and musical talent for 15 years, becoming the UK’s flagship charity in identifying, mentoring and supporting young “Future Talent” from challenging backgrounds.

Future Talent is managed by a devoted and hardworking team and supported by a range of ambassadors and trustees from the worlds of music, entertainment, education and business.

Through our Young Musicians Development Programme, we listen to, support and develop the needs and aspirations of amazing young musicians whose backgrounds present challenges to their musical development.

Core to Future Talent is the evolution of the young lives it affects; without exception, endearing and inspiring examples of musical talent and life development.

For more information on what we provide for the musicians we support, click here.

The need to build confidence, education, knowledge and performance experience, with specially tailored mentors, teachers, instruments, rehearsal space and life routes to explore.

We are on hand throughout the year, with support from our dedicated Relationship Manager, who is in constant contact with our musicians and their families.

Every year we provide development opportunities through mentoring, masterclasses and performance opportunities at venues such as the Southbank Centre, Ronnie Scott’s, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

Our vision

Inspiring and changing young lives through music…

Music is a powerful language that touches all those it reaches, and for those with talent it can change their lives. We listen to the needs of young talented musicians, and through our Young Musicians Development Programme support and develop them both as musicians and as young people.

Future Talent specifically supports young musicians from challenging backgrounds who need both the financial assistance and the mentoring and guidance to reach their potential. We do this through hands-on support as well as mentor days, ensemble performance opportunities, and growing a network of amazing young talent.

Music has no boundaries and we believe there should be no boundaries to fulfilling future talent.

From our Co-Founder and Trustee, The Duchess of Kent

“For thirteen years I taught music in a primary school in East Hull. I taught children with exceptional talent but I could not find any natural pathways for them to develop that talent. I saw the power of music in every aspect of their lives and as an extraordinary stimulant for growth.

Our vision has been to support talented young musicians from every corner of the country and in every genre of music. The benefits for these children are inestimable. We hope to break barriers down, enhance opportunities and make a career in music an equal reality for all, as well as to capture the power of music as a force for change that can improve young people’s lives.”

At the age of two Alexander received the present of a ¾ electric guitar which he named Layla, and he has been rocking ever since. Now nine years old, he has already passed his LLCM performance diploma with the RGT, has appeared on television and has recently been offered a place at Chetham’s School of Music.

Alexander has used his financial support from Future Talent to pay for guitar lessons with his teacher Matt Vero, and for costs relating to his diploma. We love Alexander for his sense of humour!

From a family of singers, 16-year-old Charlotte has always wanted to be involved in music and, after winning the Frome Young Musician of the Year Award and applying to Future Talent, she has gone from strength to strength. This year Charlotte will perform as a frontline singer for the Future Talent Jazz Orchestra at venues such as Windsor Castle.

Charlotte has used her financial support to buy recording equipment and a laptop to help her with her songwriting and producing. We love Charlotte because of her soul!

Future Talent alumna Elodie has been playing the violin since she was just two years old. Now 19, she has developed into a fine soloist and chamber musician. She is the leader of the National Youth Orchestra, and a member of Chineke! Orchestra with whom she will also appear as a soloist in 2018.

Elodie used her financial support to help fund lessons with her teacher Maciej Rakowski and her Future Talent mentor was Chloë Hanslip. She has grown in confidence so much since we have known her. We love Elodie because she is a passionate and sensitive musician and person!

Minhaz Abedin

Chief Operating Officer

Driven by an impatient urge to create impact, I love to empower conversations around opportunities for young people.

Beginning my journey aged 11, I lobbied Parliament for increased youth service funding in Leeds. Elected as a Youth MP, I spoke at the Dispatch Box in the House of Commons twice, serving as the National Spokesperson by age 17.

Continuing my journey on the global stage, the Secretary of State for International Development appointed me as the official Youth Delegate to the United Nations. Joining global charity World Merit in 2015 to continue this work, I currently serve the Board as a Trustee.

While at University, I founded a marketing agency to amplify brands across the globe through organic conversations. Within three years, we established offices in London and reached over 400 million people with clients like 'The Times' and 'Reed Smith’. It continues to thrive with a fantastic team in Shoreditch

I am thrilled to be starting a new chapter with Future Talent at an exciting time, and I look forward to growing and developing the charity to support more gifted young musicians across the nation.

Holly Harman

Relationship Manager

As a young musician, I was fortunate enough to benefit from various schemes, mentoring programmes and fantastic teachers and without these probably wouldn’t have become a professional musician.

I studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama gaining a Bmus (Hons) and PGDip in Historical Performance and I freelance as a Baroque violinist in various orchestras around the UK and Europe. I also play folk music in an ensemble, The Twisted Twenty, and run my own record label for string music, Penny Fiddle Records.

Rob Brooks

Team Administrator

My musical journey began with learning the piano and trumpet whilst in primary school. I later took up singing lessons too, and before I knew it I was spending every moment of my spare time singing and acting in shows with youth theatre groups and choirs. In recent years, I have worked with numerous music and theatre groups to pass on the all the lessons I learned growing up that helped me to find my passion for performing, grow in confidence and develop as a person.

In 2017, I graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a BMus (Hons) in Classical Performance. I enjoy singing a varied repertoire ranging from opera and musical theatre to jazz and pop. I am also the Chorus Manager at the Dorset Opera Festival and a freelance voiceover artist.

Our supporters

"Music is the soundtrack of our lives and having the privilege to work with these inspiring young musicians not only fills our ears with their amazing talent but sees us grow along with their life journey. We are supported by a wonderful dedicated team and committed trustees, and our Ambassadors are themselves inspirations.

So get involved with us! And help us help more inspiring young musicians and young people - either through our dedicated CSR programme that uses music as a heartbeat for corporate social purpose or join our distinguished Amadeus Members and supporters who enjoy and share in a year round programme of music and activity and whose gifts literally change lives…"

Support Future Talent

Ambassadors and Trustees

Corporate Partners and Private Donorship

Along with the vital support of trusts and grants Future Talent is further empowered by corporate partnerships and private donorship.

Our first Corporate Partner is Office Space in Town. Office Space in Town provides inspiring office space to rent across the UK helping organisations of all sizes to achieve an individual business profile through its inspiring and professional office spaces in prime locations. With beautifully appointed premises located in the heart of the business districts of London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Northampton, Office Space In Town offers fully serviced offices, day offices, virtual offices and meetings rooms. In 2018 OSiT became Future Talent’s first Corporate Partner with a concert in its Mayfair Offices to celebrate hosting the charity’s head office as one of its many clients.

This year we launched our private donorship programme for supporters and a prestigious group of donors who form our Amadeus Club. Our Amadeus Club Founding Members are Gerry and Kelly Pasciucco who have had a long association with Future Talent supporting our young musicians. Gerry and Kelly are both patrons of the arts and we are privileged to have their support.

For further details on both Corporate Partnership and our Future Talent Amadeus Club and Supporters, please contact us at info@futuretalent.org

Contact us

Got any questions? Please complete and submit an Enquiry Form below.

If you'd rather have a chat, feel free to call us in the office on 020 3457 1310, where we're available Monday-Friday 9.30am-5.30pm.