Charity

BRITs Funding
A substantial contribution to The BRIT Trust is made from the net proceeds of The BRIT Awards shows. To date, over £10,000,000 (Ten Million Pounds) has been raised by The BRIT Awards for good causes.

The BRIT Trust
The BRITs Trust was created in 1989 by leaders in the music industry who came together to create this charitable wing of the British Phonographic Industry. Its mission is “to give young people a chance to express their musical creativity regardless of race, class, sex or ability”. The BRIT Trust sponsors music education in all genres, through partner foundations, The BRIT School and by charitable giving. Over the nearly two decades since its inception, the programs it has facilitated have raised over £13 million pounds.

For more information check out: www.brittrust.co.uk

The BRIT School
If you thought that the audience at the BRITs Awards Show was comprised totally of rock stars, celebrities and hangers on in various states of inebriation you’d be wrong. Lucky students from the BRITs School, Europe’s only free Performing Arts and Technology School, are also in attendance on the night. More than 800 youngsters from across the country with artistic potential are selected to attend this school where they can gain skills of inestimable value for making it in the biz. Arthur Boulton who has worked with the BRIT school for the past 15 years says “Our students learn how to perform live and how to relate to an audience.”

A quick perusal of their alumnae list shows that it works as it reads like an awards show roster itself: Amy Winehouse (who Boulton says was far from a wild child during her school days); the Kooks and Kate Nash to name only a few. But what if a student isn’t the next Amy Winehouse? What happens then? Are they relegated to a life of busking and playing the occasional wedding?

Because the school is funded both by the Department for Education and Employment (DFEE) and the British Record Industry Trust, Boulton assures us that this doesn’t happen. “They are well‐rounded pupils. Every student who comes here leaves with qualifications as well” he says. “They may not achieve a lifetime career in music, so we ensure they are equipped for a fallback career…often they choose careers dedicated to promoting arts in the UK”.

Boulton is keen to point out that it is not a ‘fame school’. “Shows like X Factor can create the wrong
impression” he says, “allowing people to think that anybody can become the next sensation.”

For more information check out: www.brit.croydon.sch.uk

Nordoff‐Robbins: Where Music Heals
There are few people have not experienced the transformative power of music. On a rainy day, a blast of Diana Ross can send those storm clouds skittering across the sky. The particular strain of a mournful ballad can have you reaching for the phone to apologise to an ex‐communicated mate. With this in mind, way back in 1958 Paul Nordoff, a musician and composer, and a special education teacher named Clive Robbins, combined forces to bring the life‐enhancing power of music to those who suffered. Born from this partnership was Nordoff‐Robbins a charitable foundation that trains people to become music therapists and provides over 700 music therapy sessions a week to people in need of all ages across the UK.

But what does Music Therapy do and who needs it?
“No matter how disabled or handicapped a person is,” says Simon Proctor (who has been a music therapist for the past 12 years) “...they have a capacity to be musical and relate to people that way.” Proctor explains that the Nordoff‐Robbins approach stems from the founders concept that in every child lies a ‘Musical Child’; an ability to relate and be playful that can be tapped by music. This, the teaching shows, exists even in people severely closed off from human interaction either because of physical and mental handicaps or as the result of a great trauma.

Using music, therapists are able to draw these patients out of their shells. “There is a playful, musical side to [these patients]” says Proctor, “Musical Therapy is an attempt to connect to that.” Proctor cites the example of a non‐verbal six‐year‐old girl who was referred to him because of her aggressiveness with classmates. Weekly sessions over the course of a year had her dancing and expressing herself as she had not done in school. By the time she left treatment the locked‐away little girl had learned not only how to begin speaking, but how to play. Proctor now trains the ranks of future practitioners at Nordoff‐Robbins school in a two‐year Master’s program. The therapists’ methodology is highly flexible, designed to be responsive to the patient’s needs and interests.
Musical skills are essential as is the ability to improvise, but not just any riff will do. Says Proctor: “Musicians usually improvise for the thrill of it, here we teach them to think very carefully about why, how and what it will achieve with the patient.” “With a very impaired patient, if [a therapist] is highly attentive, there is a sense that the patient is running things…For someone unable to control anything in their life, this feeling of being in charge is incredibly powerful ‐ they get a different sense of being themselves.”

For more information check out: www.nordoff‐robbins.org.uk