Sydney Eisteddfod

Power of Music Workshops for Young Musicians

Power of Music Workshops for Young Musicians

Sydney Eisteddfod gives young people including those from culturally and linguistically diverse and/or low socio-economic backgrounds, the opportunity to come together through the performing arts on professional stages. Through our outreach to regional, outer metropolitan and public schools, we are aware of the barriers that prevent many from benefitting from performing arts opportunities due to ...

GOAL

$10,000

Australia > NSW > Metro and Regional
17/02/2025 > 30/06/2025

Field of Interest

  • Arts and culture
  • Education/training and employment

Target Population

  • Young people (6-25)
  • People experiencing socio-economic disadvantage or vulnerability
Sydney Eisteddfod Sydney Eisteddfod

Regarded as one of the largest and most successful performing arts festivals of its type in the world, Sydney Eisteddfod is a cultural organisation that has been encouraging aspiring performers of all ages and types in the pursuit of excellence for more than nine decades. Its main program, running from May to September annually, includes classical and contemporary events for singers, dancers, actors, musicians, composers, bands, choirs and orchestras. Since its beginning in 1933, over 2.8 million entrants have performed on Sydney Eisteddfod stages, competing for enjoyment, prizes or scholarships for future study. It now attracts over 18,200 entrants, who perform to an audience of over 170,000 people over 415 events.

The Eisteddfod community nurtures the development of artistic and creative skills and empowers young people to have the courage to express their unique creativity. Our programs cultivate artistic expression, creative thinking, cultural awareness, and free and lively conversation between our audiences and future generations of artists from all over Australia.

Engaging in the performing arts in this supportive environment grows confidence, self-esteem, team spirit and connection within our young artists. Important attributes to build resilience and succeed in life no matter which career path they follow in the future.

Our Vision: All young people have the opportunity to Dream, Perform, Achieve and be Inspired
Our Mission: To create life-changing performing arts opportunities for young people regardless of their social economic backgrounds through our festival and education programs.

Project Summary

Sydney Eisteddfod gives young people including those from culturally and linguistically diverse and/or low socio-economic backgrounds, the opportunity to come together through the performing arts on professional stages. Through our outreach to regional, outer metropolitan and public schools, we are aware of the barriers that prevent many from benefitting from performing arts opportunities due to socio-economic or geographical reasons and lack of music education in public schools. To improve this situation, we wish to hold a series of free music workshops and masterclasses with professional musicians across piano and a range of instruments each Saturday from March to May, prior to the 2025 Eisteddfod, for skills development and stage presentation for young, disadvantaged artists.

The engagement of emerging professional young musicians to run the workshops and masterclasses will ensure that the young participants relate to their peers, have role models and provide employment opportunities for the young tutors. The workshop participants will be offered free entry into the 2025 Eisteddfod events to put their learning into action. This would increase their access to prize funds and generous music scholarships. Annually, through philanthropy the Sydney Eisteddfod distributes over $200,000 in scholarships and awards which fund further study and performance expenses.

The proposed workshop program aims to prepare these participants for performance at a competition level will provide at a minimum valuable music education, confidence and stage presence. For some it will provide valuable prize funds or life changing scholarships will assist with further training, instruments and career pathways.

Project Outcomes

Address Inequity: This free program will address the under-provision of music education in NSW and provide access regardless of background to skills development, mentorship, cash awards and scholarships to assist with further training and encourage participants to follow their passion for performance.
Success will be measured through workshop participation numbers, satisfaction, completion rates and achievement in Eisteddfod events marked by adjudicators. Long term results will be measured through return participation in future years and through a follow-up survey of participants and mentors.

Mental Health: Provide the scaffolding to ensure our participants gain pride in learning new skills, confidence, discipline through practice and self-esteem through achievement. Resilience in young people and ability to embrace risk are important factors in positive mental health. Through audiences, donors, volunteers, mentors and participants we foster social interactions and intergenerational connectedness which increases empathy and has a positive impact.
Feedback we receive from participants and their parents and teachers across all areas of the Eisteddfod supports the impact performance with peers has on their sense of achievement and love of the performing arts.

Training & Employment: The participants will have access to residencies and industry experience we provide through partnerships with leading arts and educational organisations, nationally and internationally. Winner of our 2022 Piano Scholarship, Winnie Su is studying at the Royal Northern College of Music UK and returned recently to perform with our partner, Willoughby Symphony and ran workshops for young pianists for SE. Our alumni are found on stages around the world. (Attached letter)

Budget Breakdown

TOTAL BUDGET: $34,095
FUNDING
Funding source Amount
Sydney Eisteddfod core wages & oncosts (confirmed) $13,977
Kawai Sponsorship Piano tuning (confirmed) $1,500
Donor Funds secured (confirmed) $5,000
Sydney Eisteddfod 2025 budget (confirmed) $3,618
Funding gap (unconfirmed) $10,000
EXPENSES
Expense item Amount
Workshop musician tutors $250 per session x 2 per Sat x 12 $6,000
Workshop Coordinator - $75 hr x 7.5 hrs wk x 15 wks $8,438
Sydney Eisteddfod Marketing staff - schools liaison pro rata of salary $4,122
Sydney Eisteddfod Venue staff x 1 each day - pro rata of salary $5,760
Oncosts for staff and casuals $32,757 x 12.5% $4,095
Piano Tuning $1,500
Marketing costs - digital, website, social media, school liaison $2,500
Catering for workshops - 24 sessions $1,200
Consumables $480
Venue - Chippen Theatre provided by Sydney Eisteddfod $0

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