Future Talent

Future Talent is a very special charity that provides the critical support to enable exceptional musical talent to flourish.
They find, fund, nurture and monitor gifted musicians aged between 5 and 18 whose current financial circumstances are preventing them from fulfilling their musical potential.
The funding and opportunities we provide enable young people from across the UK to aim high and make their musical dreams a reality.

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Rochdale Musicians

Alex Saxon has been learning instruments through Rochdale Music Service since the age of eight.

He has never owned his own instruments and has always borrowed them from the Music Service, where he also worked as an assistant teacher.

Securing funding from Future Talent has meant that Alex has been able to purchase a professional standard alto saxophone, enabling him to go to Newcastle College where he is studying Jazz, Commercial and Popular Music Performance.

Alex’s ambition is to become a session musician, performer and teacher.

Helen Clark is fourteen and lives in Rochdale.

She began playing the tenor horn when she was four and since the age of five she has competed in the annual Rochdale Music Festival, winning the Warrington Trophy for Brass Solo Year 9 and under for the last six years.

Helen plays solo horn in the Youth and Intermediate brass bands at Rochdale Music Service and she has performed at a number of prestigious venues including Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Gateshead Sage Centre.

Helen is the 2011 Future Talent Champions Bronze award winner for Rochdale. Winning this award has enabled her to purchase a Yamaha Neo tenor horn, which will greatly benefit her playing.

For the past four years, Helen has been a member of the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain. She recently auditioned for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and attended her first course with them in August 2011. Membership of these groups gives Helen the opportunity to play alongside, and work with some of the leading names in the brass band world.

Helen also plays the violin in the Rochdale Music Service folk group.

Jack Foster began playing brass and drums at primary school at the age of eight, thanks to a school visit from Rochdale Music Service. His interest in music quickly grew to cover all different kinds of music so that by the time Jack started secondary school he gave up brass to focus on percussion. He also began to play the guitar and banjo.

This led Jack to folk music and a growing involvement with Rochdale Music Service. With the Service Jack had the opportunity to travel to London, Italy and Ireland with various groups including the Concert Orchestra and Concert Band and That’s All Folk. As he got older, Jack began to collaborate with five other musicians from the Service to create the folk band Céole Tíre. Jack also became interested in composition and started writing solo guitar pieces, music for strings and Irish and gypsy tunes.

On completing his GCSEs Jack went on to study for a BTEC in Music at his local college. This gave him further opportunities to work with musicians and he began to play in local pubs and clubs with a classic rock covers band, playing electric guitar. In Autumn 2011, Jack began his performance-based degree at Newcastle University, studying Folk and Traditional Music focussing on Celtic music from the British Isles.

By receiving a bursary from Future Talent, Jack plans to upgrade his guitar and he is also very keen to use the remaining funds to extend his experience of music, which includes a workshop with folk guitarist Tony McManus. Through Newcastle University Jack is considering the possibility of spending a semester abroad, studying with one of their partner institutions. He would also like to look into the possibilities of taking a trip to Romania to look at Romanian folk music. Being exposed to different cultural influences, will give Jack the chance to learn and share music with others.

All of these elements will help Jack grow and develop, to improve both his ability to play by ear and build his confidence which will in turn enable him to become a more complete musician.

Nicola Beazley started playing violin while she was at primary school and quickly showed a natural talent for performing live.

Over the years she has greatly extended her repertoire adding flute, piano and voice to her list of graded instruments.

Having won the Future Talent Champions Gold award in Rochdale in 2010, Nicola used her prize money to purchase new instruments and equipment, including a special 5-stringed violin, enabling her to enhance her development as a folk performer.

Nicola is currently studying fiddle and flute on the Folk and Traditional Music course at Newcastle University.

Before starting uni, she was a stalwart at Rochdale Music Service performing in numerous groups including the orchestra, wind bands, choirs and folk groups often at national level in events such as Music for Youth and the National Concert Band Festival.

Nicola has given many performances at Newcastle University and she has also performed at Future Talent’s Picnic in the Park at Thirsk Hall in 2010 at the afternoon tea party at St James’s Palace in 2011.

As well as being an accomplished performer Nicola is also developing as a composer, writing both for violin and wind instruments.

Despite her broad range of musical abilities Nicola’s first love is folk music.

DISCLAIMER: The content on this page is from www.futuretalent.org Registered Charity No. 1107747