Jackdaws Music Education Trust

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Jackdaws Music Education Trust
JackdawsMusicEducationTrust500x362.gif
Location
Great Elm
Frome
BA11 3NY
United Kingdom
Information
Type Charitable Trust
Founded 12 June 1993
Founder Maureen Lehane Wishart
Charity Number 1037073
Artistic Director Saffron van Zwanenberg
Values Inspiration, Access, Inclusion
Mission To enable creative expression by bringing music to life
Website http://www.jackdaws.org.uk

Jackdaws Music Education Trust is a charitable organisation specialising in Classical music education. Focussing on children and adult amateur musicians, it runs year round weekend courses, an extensive series of education projects with Somerset schools and a Young Artist programme.

Classical music broad tradition of Western art music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western culture, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. While a more precise term is also used to refer to the period from 1750 to 1820, this article is about the broad span of time from before the 6th century AD to the present day, which includes the Classical period and various other periods. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period. The major time divisions of Western art music are as follows:

Contents

It was established in 1993 by Mezzo-soprano Maureen Lehane at her home in Great Elm, a village close to the Somerset town of Frome. The organisation has the aim of bringing Classical music of the highest standard to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Maureen Theresa Lehane Wishart was an English mezzo-soprano singer, university lecturer and founder of the Great Elm Music Festival, Jackdaws Music Education Trust and an annual Vocal Award for young singers. She was known for her recordings and performances of Handel's operas.

Great Elm farm village in the United Kingdom

Great Elm is a village and civil parish between Mells and Frome in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Hapsford.

Somerset County of England

Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel, its coastline facing southeastern Wales. Its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset's county town is Taunton.

Founding

The organisation emerged from the Great Elm Music Festival, a small series of performances first run in 1987 and then presented annually by Maureen Lehane out of her home in Great Elm. [1] Her desire was to spread education as well as enjoyment of Classical music, which required a building and led to the purchasing of the Great Elm Coach House by local philanthropist Rosemary Bugden. She then let the Coach House to Maureen on a rent of £1 per year to give her a building in which to found the music centre. [1]

The Jackdaws Music Education Trust was formally opened by Dame Joan Sutherland on 12 June 1993, [2] in the Coach House beside Maureen's home at Bridge House. [3] [4]

Joan Sutherland Australian soprano

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian-born coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

The organisation name Jackdaws came from the title of a song for voice and piano by Peter Wishart to words by William Cowper. As the charity was founded by his wife, and dedicatee of the song, Maureen Lehane in his memory, the title seemed appropriate. [1]

Peter Charles Arthur Wishart was an English composer. Wishart was born in Crowborough. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1947–1948 and taught at the Guildhall School of Music, Birmingham University, King's College London and Reading University where he was Professor of Music from 1977. His compositions include several neo-classical operas, orchestral and chamber pieces, and a large amount of church music. Critics have commented on Wishart's strong and individual lyricism, and his admiration for the music of Igor Stravinsky.

William Cowper (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak.

Education Projects

The Trust is a lead partner in Arts Council England's music education hub for Somerset, Sound Foundation Somerset. [5]

Arts Council England arts organization in London, England

Arts Council England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2002 when all of the regional arts boards were subsumed into Arts Council England and became regional offices of the national organisation.

Jackdaws work with children in Somerset schools each year through their large-scale education projects, such as OperaPLUS, Year of... and Song Story, as well as smaller projects such as the School Picnic, Summer Production, and community orientated events such as the Big Sing, part of Sound Foundation Somerset's School Singing Strategy.

In 2016, the Jackdaws OperaPLUS project won a Music Teacher Magazine Award for Excellence. [6]

Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards

Starting in 1992, the Great Elm Vocal Award was founded in memory of Peter Wishart, a composer of songs for classical voice. Launched to support aspiring young opera singers in their studies, the awards are open to singers between the ages of 22 and 30. Contestants have perform two songs by set composers Handel and Peter Wishart, [7] and for the first time in 2015, one own choice piece.

The Awards have gone through a number of name changes. It began as the Rosemary Bugden Vocal Award in 1992, after Rosemary Bugden who provided most of the funding for the competition. [8] In 1994 the awards returned as the Great Elm Festival Vocal Award after being coupled with the Great Elm festival; there was no award in 1993. The 1999 award, won by Andrew Kennedy, was the first to include Jackdaws, the charitable organisation founded by Maureen, in the title after administration for the awards was handed to the Trust which continues to run the awards today. [9] The name remained variously the Jackdaws Great Elm Vocal Award, Great Elm Vocal Award and Jackdaws Vocal Awards until 2011 when, following the death of Maureen Lehane in December 2010, the competition was renamed the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards and her life commemorated with a celebration concert in the evening. [10]

The Award has supported many accomplished singers of Opera including Amanda Echalaz, Dawid Kimberg, Madeleine Pierard, Anna Devin, Christopher Maltman and Andrew Kennedy. [10] [11] In 2015, the award was won by the first reserve finalist, Baritone Julien van Mellaerts, who stepped in less than 24 hours before the final. [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Wall, Andrew (2006). Let the Music Speak. Frome: Hardington Press. p. 5. ISBN   0-9554340-0-9.
  2. ↑ Wall (2006), p. 23
  3. ↑ "Maureen Lehane: Celebrated mezzo-soprano who dedicated herself to the Jackdaws Music Trust". The Independent. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Maureen Lehane Obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "About Us". About Us. Sound Foundation Somerset. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "2016 Winners". www.musiceducationexpo.co.uk. Music Education Expo. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Wall (2006), p. 28
  8. ↑ Wall (2006), p. 27
  9. ↑ Bredin, Henrietta (November 2015). "Competitive Instincts". Opera Magazine. Vol. 66 no. 11. London: Opera Magazine Ltd. p. 1382.
  10. 1 2 "Winners". www.jackdaws.org.uk. Jackdaws Music Education Trust. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  11. ↑ Wall (2006), p. 83
  12. ↑ "Last Minute Success". Last Minute Success. The Fine Times Recorder. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
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