Category Archives: News

Newsletter, July 2025

PKMF Newsletter 15 - July 2025

Welcome to the 15th issue of Perth & Kinross Music Foundation’s 6 monthly Newsletter.  The Trustees hope that you and your families are all well, and have been able to enjoy the lovely weather over recent weeks?

In this issue, we bring you up to date with what we have been up to over the last 6 months.  There is also an update on our financial support to the Instrumental Music Service over the last 4 years since fees for instrumental tuition were abolished by the Scottish Government in Summer 2021.

What have we been up to over the last 6 months?

In the first few months of 2025, the Trustees (along with other like-minded individuals and groups) campaigned for the reversal of cuts to the Instrumental Music Service budget which Perth & Kinross Council had previously approved for financial years 2024/25 – 2026/27.  This campaign was successful in that all the previously approved cuts were reversed at the Council budget setting meeting held in February 2025.    This decision meant that the new Coordinator, Lynsey Paterson did not have to come up with savings proposals that would undoubtedly have included the loss of staff tutor posts.

The charge for young musicians attending Central Groups had been set at £100 per academic year from August 2024 through to April 2025.  The Trustees received a few applications from families for support in paying these fees and these were all agreed, and funds subsequently paid to Perth & Kinross Council.

Following a successful appearance at the Scottish Brass Band Youth Festival of Brass in Perth Concert Hall last November where they won the Percussion Ensemble class for the second successive year, the Perth & Kinross Percussion Ensemble was invited to compete in the Scottish Young Musician Ensemble competition held in Glasgow in March 2025.  They not only won the Percussion Group section, but were also crowned overall Scottish Young Musician Ensemble of the year for 2025 having competed against 12 other Ensembles of various disciplines from across Scotland.

Last year the Trustees decided to become active again in raising funds given that some charges had been reintroduced by Perth & Kinross Council from August 2024.  We held a very successful concert in the North Inch Campus in March 2025 during which there were performances from several Central Groups.  Perthshire Youth Brass also performed on the evening thus continuing our long-standing partnership with that group.  The sum raised on the evening was more than £1,300 which was amazing.  We were also successful in being readmitted to the annual grant award schemes operated by the Forteviot and Thomson Charitable Trusts.  In addition, the Foundation was awarded a grant from Soroptimist International Perth Branch this year.

Perth Festival of the Arts lends its voice to ‘Stop the Cuts’

Perth Festival of the Arts has joined with other local arts organisations as well as pupils to call for Perth and Kinross Council to reverse its decision to cut the Instrumental Music Service.

https://www.perthfestival.co.uk/Council-called-to-reverse-cuts-to-Instrumental-Music-Service

Let the Children Play – Protect Instrumental Music in Perth & Kinross!

Young musicians in Perth & Kinross have taken a stand against devastating cuts to the Instrumental Music Service (IMS), which threaten access to music education for hundreds of children. Led by Eva Seba, they have gathered over 5,000 signatures in a petition urging Perth & Kinross Council to reverse the decision.

These cuts—totalling £227,000 over three years—have already resulted in fewer music instructors, new fees for Central Music Groups and Music Camps, and the withdrawal of IMS tuition from several primary schools. A Freedom of Information request has confirmed a worrying drop in participation, with numbers in Central Groups falling sharply since these charges were introduced.

Music changes lives. It nurtures confidence, discipline, and creativity. Yet, opportunities for young musicians are being stripped away without proper consultation. Alongside other local music organisations, Perth and Kinross Music Foundation is calling on the Council to reverse these cuts before more young people miss out.

How can you help?
If you believe every child deserves the chance to play, please contact your local Councillor today and urge them to restore funding for instrumental music. Let’s stand together and ensure that music remains at the heart of our community.

#LetTheChildrenPlay #SaveMusicInPKC

 

Newsletter, July ’24

Whilst colleagues at Perth & Kinross Council Education & Childrens Services have confirmed that all PKC music tuition fees were formally abolished as of August 2022, this matter has not yet been passed into legislation by the Scottish Parliament, so there is still the possibility of them being reinstated by a future Scottish Government – of whatever political hue!  

That said, Perth & Kinross Council (PKC) decided in February 2024, when setting their budget for 2024-2026, to re-introduce fees for certain aspects of the Instrumental Music Service (IMS) activities – i.e. attendance at Central Groups/Orchestras and Music Camps, with an income target of £48,000 per annum being set.

They also agreed to reduce the staffing levels in the Service by 3.5 full time equivalent staff thus saving £199,000 over the next 3 years.  Due to the rural/urban nature of provision across Perth & Kinross, several members of staff work part time in order the achieve the most flexible provision of instrumental tuition across the whole Council area.  This means that effectively, there could be as many as 10 jobs lost over the next 3 years to achieve these savings…

Newsletter, July 2022

Welcome to the 9th issue of Perth & Kinross Music Foundation’s 6 monthly Newsletter.  

The Trustees hope that you and your families are all well, and have steered clear of the dreaded Covid over the last few months as life has started to get back to something more like normal?

In this issue, we bring you up to date with what we have been up to over the last 6 months, and also give you some information on what we plan to do in the future.  

What have we been up to over the last 6 months?

As was set out in our last newletter, the Scottish Government policy change with regard to free music tuition in state schools which was announced last summer, changed how the charity would have to operate given that we were set up to provide funds for music tuiton fees (and associated costs) which financially challenged families had difficualty in paying.

Since the the Scottish Government announcement last year, the Trustees have continued to support the Instrumental Music Service, whilst remaining within the terms of our OSCR approved constitution.  To that end, we agreed with Allan Young (IMS Co-ordinator) to make available a grant to his service of up to £20,000 to be spent on additional instruments, equipment, and other resources on order to support the team’s efforts to re-estabish the level of service that they provide to pre-pandemic levels, and thus to encourage more young people to want to learn to play a musical instrument…

Event Cancellations

At the Foundation’s Trustees’ meeting on Tuesday 25th August 2020, we regrettably took the decision to cancel our 2 forthcoming fundraising events – the IMS Staff Tutor Concert planned for 13th September 2020, and our popular Quiz Night which was planned for 17th September.

Although the Trustees took these decisions, we were guided by the two venues who had notified us that, due to current restrictions regarding large gatherings, they weren’t going to be able to allow us to hold these events. Whilst this is very sad news, I am sure that you will agree that the decision of both the venues and ourselves are the right ones at this time.

We plan to reschedule these events for late Spring/early Summer 2021 when we hope that restrictions will be much more relaxed (or better still, non existent) and we are all back to as normal a way of living our lives as we can be. We will keep you posted via our next six monthly newsletter as regards dates so that you can put them in your diary, and hopefully you will be able to come along and support our continuing efforts to “Let Our Children Play”.

As a consequence of these decisions, the next fundraising event we still have in the diary is our annual concert by IMS central groups bands/orchestras, which is currently planned for Wednesday 3rd March 2021 in the North Inch Community Campus.  At this time, we are hoping that this event can go ahead given that it is more than 6 months away, but we will of course, again be guided by any restrictions still in place at that time, plus the views of the staff of the Instrumental Music Service, as it is not yet clear when Central Groups will be able to begin rehearsing.

Thank you all for your continuing support of the work of the Foundation in supporting our young musicians from across Perth & Kinross.

Youth Philanthropy Initiative

https://www.facebook.com/joanne.robertson.7/videos/3785730968119396/

Thanks to four young friends who took part in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative at school this term, each group chose a charity that they would like to support and put together a presentation to try and win £3000 for their chosen charity – the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation.

Proud mum, Joanne Robertson, said, “The four kids put together this video to explain what music means to them and most importantly recognised how privileged they are at their school. This presentation wasn’t about them, it was genuine and close to their hearts.”

“Although they made it through to the finals, they didn’t win BUT have come away thinking about how they can help in the future.”

On behalf of the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, Mr Gordon Murch, thanked the youngsters for speaking up on behalf of the charity.

“Their efforts have gone far to demonstrate the wide public support for our work and to prove the huge values to be uncovered from learning to play a musical instrument.”

Credit to their young composer and his pal on guitar!.

Quiz success

PKMF held a fundraising Quiz Night on Tuesday 17 September 2019 in the Civil Service Club, Perth.  Joint Quiz Masters for the evening were Jason Blythe and Dave Findlay who had set some very challenging, but fun, questions.  13 teams took part and all participants who made a comment at the end of the evening expressed how much they had enjoyed themselves.  A raffle was also held and the final proceeds to the Foundation funds after all expenses had been settled was £545. 

The quiz was won by a team calling themselves “The B Side” with an extremely high score of 82 out of a possible 100.  The evening was sponsored by Errochty Financial Services, a local company, which sponsored the cost of hiring the venue.  The Committee will review how the evening went at its next meeting and will hopefully choose to organise another Quiz Night evening in the future.