As you may know, your membership to BBE includes full membership to Making Music. To take advantage of all the benefits that come with Making Music membership, all you need to do is to activate your group on their website.
As life starts to return to a more normal pace in 2022, there are lots of exciting music-making opportunities to look forward to and prepare for. Check out the projects listed below to get the dates in your calendar!
Adopt a Music Creator – applications open in July
Are you looking for a way for your brass band to really stretch and develop its creative talents? If so, we might have just the project for you! Adopt a Music Creator is an annual creative project, which pairs Making Music / BBE members - choirs, brass bands, orchestras, and ensembles - with a music creator for up to a year leading up to a premiere, a recording, and a possible radio broadcast. Music creators can get to know performing groups and write a piece especially for them to premiere, while groups have the chance to help create a new work by some of the UK’s most promising music creators. Each pairing is assigned an experienced mentor to support and guide the music creator and group, and help the creative process run smoothly.
During the last 20 years, we have created over 120 successful partnerships. In 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, both Fulham Brass Band and City of Bristol Brass Band were involved in successful pairings. Check out our website to find out more about this exciting project.
Make Music Day – 21 June
Join in the celebrations! Make Music Day is an annual, international celebration of music held every year on 21 June, now in 125 countries and over 1,000 cities. We love Make Music Day as it gives us a chance to celebrate all the talented music groups across the UK – brass bands included! It's made by everyone for everyone, and there are many ways to get involved. It’s simple, all you need to do to take part is to organise an event which takes place on 21 June. It could be tiny or huge, in person or online. It should be free for anyone to watch or take part (such as a concert or a workshop) and it needs to be in a public space. A bandstand? A park? Town square? Front garden? School playground? If you can’t do an event that day or are in a space not open to the public (for instance a school hall, care home), then you could make a video in advance and premiere it on 21 June.
Making Music Awards – nominations open in June
The leisure-time music sector depends on talent which often goes unrecognised, so Making Music's awards aim to change that by celebrating music creators, arrangers and innovative new music projects. Each year, Making Music members can nominate music creator and arrangers they have worked with for these awards. Prizes range from promotion across Making Music's sector-wide networks, to cash awards towards commissions or other musical activities and projects.