CAPTION – (L–R) – David Murdoch and Alex Cairncross (Methven Castle); Kenneth McIver, Maureen Rutherford, Liam Bonthrone and Maggie Adamson; with Annette Welch (YMPA) and Henry Neill (PKMF).

Two local music charities were the beneficiaries of last Sunday’s concert in Methven Castle. Making a breath-taking appearance was the award winning Shetland fiddler, Maggie Adamson.

Henry Neil reports, “Maggie arrived in Perth on a flight from Lerwick with only minutes to spare. But then a magical pocket of Shetland air seemed to fill the stately drawing room and she played her programme of strathspeys, reels and marches. She also demonstrated ably that a fiddler could also be a violinist as she turned next to some well-known classics including Czardas by Monti. Her technique was breathtaking.”

“Tenor Liam Bonthrone and baritone Kenneth McIver’s well-balanced programme of Scottish, classical and light music provided the ideal complement to Maggie’s airs.”

At the piano, Maureen Rutherford turned from Shetland air to Mozart aria and from Gilbert and Sullivan to Robert Wilson as she accompanied the young musicians.

Liam Bonthrone’s accompanied himself in a personal medley of songs, as tribute to the late Perthshire musician George Donald who had composed the music for ‘Scotland the What’. To everyone’s great delight, host David Murdoch drew attention to the fact that the piano stool had been George Donald’s own one.

Maggie Adamson’s recent tour to Germany with Runrig’s former lead singer, Donnie Munro, led to production of a CD – ‘Sweet Surrender’. Liam and Kenneth are no strangers to the recording studio either. Liam is currently studying at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow and Kenneth is preparing to do the same.

The sell-out event was coordinated by Neil Copland, with the generous backing of David Murdoch and Alex Cairncross, whose home at the castle proved to be the perfect setting. Over £1000 was raised.

Speaking on behalf of both the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation and the Young Musicians Parents Association, Mr Andrew Mitchell praised the trio of young artists. “Our charities exist to support tuition fees and other expenses involved in learning music. We are grateful to David and Alex at Methven Castle for their continued support for our work. We rely a great deal on the generous goodwill of the wider community and it is especially moving to witness how our most talented young musicians are prepared to give their time and talent in support of others.”

A Perth City South councillor has welcome the decision not to put a new arm’s length trust in charge of music lessons in Perth and Kinross.

Campaigners had feared the much respected Instrumental Music Service (IMS) might be handed over to a new trust being set up to run the council’s cultural services. Parents had suggested tuition fees could rise or music camps or jobs could be cut if the move went ahead.

The changed had been proposed after a review of existing sports and leisure trusts in Perth and Kinross, Live Active and Horsecross Arts. Last week councillors agreed a new cultural trust should be set up by April 2016 to run the council’s museums, galleries, libraries and archives.

According to the report put to councillors the new trust will also act as a fundraising vehicle for the Cultural City Project alongside Horsecross Arts.

The setting up of the trust, which it emerged during the meeting would NOT take on the IMS, is expected to save the council around £332,000 on non-domestic rates for its buildings.

PKC’s deputy chief executive John Fyffe also said staff moving to the trust will have the terms and conditions of their jobs protected under TUPE arrangements.

Council leader Ian Miller told the room: “This paper is the conclusion of the options appraisal carried out into the future delivery of culture and sport in Perth and Kinross. The proposals are sensible and will lead to significant efficiencies and saving for the council.”

Referring to IMS being left out of the new trust, councillor Willie Wilson told the PA after the meeting, This is a sensible decision. The IMS did not fit well within the trust model and there was a real danger that a huge amount of voluntary effort, both by parents and young people, would have been lost of the service had been forced into a trust. There was no real advantage intros move and common sense has prevailed. This decision does, however, represent a real challenge for the council and all those involved in the Music Matter movement. We can move on from here and help build an even stronger and more positive relationship between the council and the voluntary sector.”

He added, “We are lucky in Perth that the sector is very strong and has excellent leadership. I will be urging the council to work fully in partnership with Music Matters in the future to ensure that the very best services can be provided for our young folk to allow them every opportunity to excel in instrumental and choral work in the future.”

by Paul Cargill
PERTHSHIRE ADVERTISER 7th July 2015

49 Balhousie Street
Perth, PH1 5HJ

trustees@pkmf.org.uk

4th February 2015

Dear Sir/Madam,

PROPOSED CUTS FROM PERTH AND KINROSS CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

We are writing on behalf of the charity, Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, (PKMF), to express our concern about a Cultural and Community Services Instrumental Music Service review which is currently looking for an annual £75,000 budget saving. We believe this is going to have a serious impact upon the instrumental tuition of school children within Perth and Kinross as well as on the wider achievements of these children.

It is a proportionately high savings figure for a service whose running cost is largely made up of staff salaries that are already offset by a generated fee income. How was this figure identified and what was was the rationale behind agreeing to make this specific amount?

We are aware that the staff were notified in May last year about this possible saving and that they had been informed that the review would be set up ‘almost immediately’. We do not understand why it has taken until January 2015 to begin the review. A very small number of meetings have been timetabled into such a short space of time considering the importance of these matters to the young people of Perth and Kinross and their families.

No time has been scheduled to meet with the parents’ organisations and other local trusts that are deeply committed in their support for instrumental tuition. Their tireless fund raising and many thousands of hours of voluntary support are witness to more than 50 years of successful partnership with the local authority. It is deeply disappointing that these groups appear to have been excluded from the current review.

It is also our understanding that Education Services is exploring the option of moving the whole instrumental tuition service into a Trust. This will create new challenges for the instrumental staff that currently work closely with the teachers to deliver a service appropriate to the needs of individual pupils, departments and schools. It is difficult to imagine how the excellent inclusion policies to be found within schools can serve children better under these proposals. It seems to us that rather than moving the instrumental music service to a new Trust it would be much more appropriate to re-integrate it back into the Education Department.  There is no other music service in Scotland that operates from outwith its education department. Instrumental tutors are already playing an integral part in contributing to Curriculum for Excellence with their colleagues in schools.

Another of our concerns arises from evidence that tuition fees are considerably higher when delivered by Trusts. When tuition fees were introduced by Perth and Kinross Council to offset costs in 1996 it was a controversial and divisive policy. At the time these fees were first introduced it became obvious that a number of families could not afford the costs and our charitable trust, Perth and Kinross Music Foundation (PKMF), was established in 1998 in order to help young instrumental musicians in the Perth and Kinross area. Currently the fees are £245.85 per annum/pupil plus £81.05 for Central groups.

All those who have attended the annual Childline Concert or Central Group concerts will be aware of the depth of talent to be found in Perth and Kinross, as well as the dedicated work of its instrumental tutors. An increase in tuition fees that impacted on pupil numbers will empty these platforms and serve only to make raise the accusation that the service has become elitist.

Currently, PKMF’s trust income is achieved through grants and fund raising events. The money raised is used to pay the fees of the least well off families; between 50-75 families each year. Any further sharp increase in fees will mean that even fewer pupils will be able to afford the tuition and there will be an increase in the number of applications being made for assistance through our charity.

Although we are aware that these options are only being explored at this time, this move, should it happen, seems to be working in totally the opposite direction to the ‘National Strategy for Instrumental Music in Scotland’ that was recently published by the Scottish government.

Key among Perth’s cultural assets, Perth Youth Orchestra was frequently quoted as instrumental in recovering Perth city status in 2012. It seems its young musicians are now being discounted in a proposal that could undo much of the hard work of previous generations.

We are aware of the constraints that Perth and Kinross Council are being asked to work within and are eager to help find a practical solution to these issues. Councillors will shortly be asked to vote on the reported outcome of this review. We believe that the case for these proposed ‘savings’ has not yet been made and that the review process has been flawed by its failure to engage with many of the interested parties.

For the reasons set out above we are asking councillors to vote against this proposed ‘saving’ and we invite those engaged in the review process to widen its scope to include the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, the Young Musicians Parents Association and Perth Youth Orchestra

Yours faithfully,
Henry Neil
George Annan (snr)
Andrew Mitchell

February 2013

A group which has been instrumental in giving youngsters access to music tuition hopes a pair of fundraising concerts will further its reach.

For 15 years the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation has given financial aid to young musicians across the region.

The registered charity has handed out £13,000 already this year to help dozens of young players achieve their musical ambitions.

It was founded by local woman Janette Stewart, after she struggled to meet the price of lessons for her daughter, who is now a music teacher.

The foundation assists all pupils of Perth and Kinross Council schools who require financial support from P4 to S6.

Families in receipt of working tax credits or high child tax credits, or who experience difficult circumstances, are eligible to apply for help.

Individuals donors regularly contribute to the foundation, whose main sponsors include the Gannochy Trust, the Guildry Incorporation of Perth, The Cross Trust, and The Jimmie Cairncross Trust. The number of people seeking assistance is increasing and 75 families were helped last year.

Chairman Sigurd Scott said: “We are delighted to assist young musicians in achieving their full potential.

“The work of the foundation is supported by independent donations and donations from organisations such as the Gannochy Trust. We do as much fundraising as possible and are always so grateful with how generous people are.

“So far this year, we have supported 60 young musicians and this came to a staggering £13,000. We thank everyone who has supported the foundation and that their continued support is vital to our commitment to young musicians.”

The cost of lessons in Perth and Kinross schools at £245.85 per year is one of the highest in Scotland. It is one of 24 local authorities which charges for lessons.

Without the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, lessons would be beyond the means of many families.

The lessons, provided by the Instrumental Music Service within Education and Children’s Service of Perth and Kinross Council, see instrumental tutors visit schools and provide lessons in a particular instrument or family of instruments.

Although cheap compared to private lessons, the sessions are free in some council areas, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The situation led to claims last year by Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, that pupils face a “postcode lottery” over accessibility to lessons.

The cost in neighbouring Fife is only £125 and Angus £183, while Dundee City charges £132 plus £83 for use of an instrument.

The union’s general secretary, Larry Flanagan, said: “The postcode lottery of provision that has emerged across Scotland, with wide variations in fee policy and the level of charges for instrumental music tuition, is causing significant damage to the availability of music education for children in some parts of Scotland.”

The EIS also claimed some councils are making a massive profit from the charges, but did not identify which ones it was referring to.

The Scottish Government said the charges levied by some authorities are “undesirable” but necessary and commissioned an Instrumental Music Group to look at how music tuition is delivered.

In December it also announced a £1 million cash injection for Scottish schools to buy new instruments.

l The first Perth and Kinross Music Foundation concert takes place this evening at Glenearn Community Campus at 7.30pm. It will be a Scottish Evening, produced by Mo Rutherford and Mhairi Mackinnon, with fiddler Pete Clerk.

On February 19 a Brass Evening conducted by Jason Blyth and Edna Auld will be held at the same venue, featuring Perthshire Youth Brass and the Jamboree Choir. Tickets for both events are available at the door.