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Sponsored cycle for PKMF and Perthshire Brass – a tribute to George Annan Snr.

Fundraising

On 16-17th May 2020, supporters of PKMF are cycling from Perth to Ecclefechan to raise funds for Perthshire Brass and Perth & Kinross Music Foundation, and to honour the founder of both groups, George Annan Snr, who passed away last year.

PKMF’s Chairperson, Mrs Mhairi Mackinnon said, “We chose Ecclefechan because of George’s saying “a crotchet is the same length in Perth, Scone, or Ecclefechan” when teaching youngsters how to play brass music.”

“The route takes us 120 miles over 2 days, with an overnight in Lanark.”

Perthshire Brass was formed in 1978 by George Annan Snr (as Perthshire Youth Brass) to enable youngsters in the area to learn a brass instrument and play in a band together. The band has evolved over the years to new have both a youth band and senior band. They now participate in numerous competitions all over the country, as well as many concerts every year in the local area. The band also goes on tour every couple of years to Perth’s twin cities (Aschaffenburg, Germany and Bydgoszcz, Poland most recently). Any funds raised from this venture will go towards the continued development of young players in both the youth and senior bands as well aiding the running of both bands.

The Perth and Kinross Music Foundation are a registered charity that was founded in 1997. (One of the founder members was George Annan senior). They are a small group but have big ambitions with the main aim being ‘to let our children play!’

They help between 75 and 100 pupils annually whose parents cannot afford to pay for their music tuition. This allows them to continue learning through their lessons and also to play in Central Groups. Playing a musical instrument let’s children grow in confidence, learn self discipline and life enhancing skills and above all, experience the joy of music making.

If you would like to sponsor us- please go to our JUST GIVING page.

Youth Philanthropy Initiative

Fundraising, News, Uncategorised
https://www.facebook.com/joanne.robertson.7/videos/3785730968119396/

Thanks to four young friends who took part in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative at school this term, each group chose a charity that they would like to support and put together a presentation to try and win £3000 for their chosen charity – the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation.

Proud mum, Joanne Robertson, said, “The four kids put together this video to explain what music means to them and most importantly recognised how privileged they are at their school. This presentation wasn’t about them, it was genuine and close to their hearts.”

“Although they made it through to the finals, they didn’t win BUT have come away thinking about how they can help in the future.”

On behalf of the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, Mr Gordon Murch, thanked the youngsters for speaking up on behalf of the charity.

“Their efforts have gone far to demonstrate the wide public support for our work and to prove the huge values to be uncovered from learning to play a musical instrument.”

Credit to their young composer and his pal on guitar!.

Quiz success

Fundraising, News

PKMF held a fundraising Quiz Night on Tuesday 17 September 2019 in the Civil Service Club, Perth.  Joint Quiz Masters for the evening were Jason Blythe and Dave Findlay who had set some very challenging, but fun, questions.  13 teams took part and all participants who made a comment at the end of the evening expressed how much they had enjoyed themselves.  A raffle was also held and the final proceeds to the Foundation funds after all expenses had been settled was £545. 

The quiz was won by a team calling themselves “The B Side” with an extremely high score of 82 out of a possible 100.  The evening was sponsored by Errochty Financial Services, a local company, which sponsored the cost of hiring the venue.  The Committee will review how the evening went at its next meeting and will hopefully choose to organise another Quiz Night evening in the future. 

Perth City Operatic Group’s support for young musicians

News, Press release
Picture shows Ola Stanton of Perth Youth Orchestra, Jonathan Cammidge, PCOG Treasurer and Mhairi MacKinnon from Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, at the party. Picture credit – Mhairi Edwards.

Perth City Operatic Group will now cease to exist, and their leftover funds have been donated to youth music charities in the area.

The Perth City Operatic Group has raised more than £10,000 for charities during its final farewell party.

The company was forced to wrap up their performances after 55 years due to dwindling attendance numbers.

Money raised from the event at the Tulloch Institute at the weekend will be evenly split to give  three charities supporting young musicians £3,500 each.

Holly Cammidge, of the Perth City Operatic Group, said the last performance was bittersweet. “It was a sad occasion but it was one we wanted to celebrate,” she said.

“It was a really nice evening.We made our donations to three charities to distribute the money in our account.

The three charities were chosen by members of the group themselves. They decided to donate the money to Perth Youth Orchestra, the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation and the Young Musicians Parents Association.

On choosing the charities, Ms Cammidge said: “It was decided at that we wanted to support up and coming musicians.

“All of our productions have had a live orchestra and we wouldn’t have managed without one, so we feel that this is giving something back.”

The opera group had to cancel its final show last autumn and was unable to form a committee at its annual general meeting in the spring.

They had previously put on a major show once a year but the pressures of doing this have become too great for the remaining organisers of the group.

Ms Cammidge said: “We had also recently tried to put on a production at Perth Theatre, like our sister organisation Perth Amateur Operatic Society have managed, but it proved too expensive.

“At our meeting in March, we couldn’t get enough people to form a committee so the group had to stop.”

On Friday night past members and their families and friends were invited to join the group to celebrate the 55 years of the opera group’s work. As the Perth City Opera Group said its final farewell, they remained grateful to everyone who supported them. Ms Cammidge said: “We would like to thank our audiences and members over the years for their support.

A spokesperson for the operatic group said: “It is with great sadness that we had to announce the closure of Perth City Operatic Group, a charity which has been a part of Perth’s performing arts scene since 1964 and welcomed many audiences over the years.

“Perth City Operatic Group’s AGM was held earlier this year and the final decision was made by its members to close the society. A decline in membership numbers and a lack of interest in the running of the society meant that this decision was forced to comply with the society’s constitution as it can not exist without a committee in place.

According to Perth City Operatic Group’s constitution, their remain funds were distributed among local youth music charities which have been chosen by the membership – including Perth Youth Orchestra and the Perth and Kinross Music Foundation.

“We’d like to thank our audiences and members over the years for their support.”

Responding on behalf of Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, Chairperson Mhairi MacKinnon said, “We are delighted to receive such a great boost to our funds but obviously saddened by the circumstances which sees the end of a great Perth institution.”

Music Service Celebrates 50 years

Press release

https://vimeo.com/146957477

Recently, Perth and Kinross Instrumental Music Service celebrated its 50th anniversary!

To celebrate this achievement they’ve put together a short film to show some of the areas they provide music provision, highlighting what it means to the children, parents and staff.

They’d love to know what you think!

Tell them about any experiences you’ve had with the service, as a pupil, parent or teacher, and why you think music provision is important.

musicservice@pkc.gov.uk

Tutors go “Gung Ho” for PKMF Funds

Uncategorised

Press Release by Perth & Kinross Music Foundation

Instrumental Music Tutors go “Gung Ho” for Perth & Kinross Music Foundation

A team of 13 PKC Instrumental Music Instructors, Music Foundation Trustees, and their families took part in the Edinburgh Gung Ho 5k Challenge on Saturday 11 May 2019.  Their aim was to raise £2,000 for the Foundation.  By the time all the sponsorship money had been collected the final total raised considerably overshot the target coming in at £2,300. 

The challenge consisted of having to run round The Meadows in Edinburgh over a 5k course – but it was filled with inflatable obstacles so wasn’t  simply a Saturday morning jog in the park, as they had to climb up and over, or through some very challenging inflatables. 

The weather smiled kindly on the race participants, some of whom had been in serious training for around 3 months, and all finished the course in less than 50 minutes.  Thankfully, the PKC/PKMF team were allocated a mid morning start timeslot when the obstacles were still quite dry, as later competitors reported that by late morning and early afternoon some of the inflatables had become very slippery, and therefore more of a challenge to get over safely.

After the event, the participants and their supporters spent some time in the capital city enjoying the chance to recall and discuss how they had coped with the build up to the race day, and the race itself.  There were some interesting tales of how some of the obstacles were dealt with!  All agreed that it had been great fun and for a very worthwhile cause.

The Foundation Trustees want to thank all who took part, and those family members and friends who supported them both morally on the day and financially through their generous donations, helping the team to smash through their target figure. 

The next fundraising event by the Music Foundation will be a Quiz night on Tuesday 17 September 2019 at 7.30 in the Civil Service Club in St Leonard’s Bank, Perth.  More details and arrangements on how to book your team in, will be available on the website nearer the time – www.pkmf.org.uk

RSCDS cheque for Music Foundation

Fundraising
RSCDS presents a cheque for £151 to Mr Neil Copland (treasurer)

Perth and Kinross Music Foundation’s treasurer, Mr Neil Copland, was delighted to accept a donation in aid of the work carried out by the Foundation, which financially supports youngsters in Perth and Kinross to access instrumental music lessons in schools. 

Perth and Kinross Music Foundation’s treasurer, Mr Neil Copland, was delighted to accept a donation in aid of the work being carried out by the Foundation, which supports youngsters in Perth and Kinross by helping them access instrumental music lessons in schools. 

Members of Perth and Perthshire Branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society’s Wednesday Class had raised £151 from raffles held at their end of term parties where Mrs Mo Rutherford (piano) had been their guest musician. They wanted to thank Mrs Rutherford and, at her suggestion, they made their cheque payable to the Foundation.

The dancers were gathered at the Robert Douglas Memorial Hall, Scone, and a combined cheque for £151 was presented by dance teacher Miss Christian Catto, watched by some of the members, and that evening’s guest accordionist, Frank Thomson.

Celebrating Sixty Cellos

Thanks to cello tutor Sarah Oxnard who celebrated her 60th Birthday by inviting 60 cellos to gather and played together. After lots of great organising by Sarah – and hard work by her friends – the day end with in informal concert and raised £757.24 for Perth and Kinross Music Foundation.

Thank you Sarah – and thank you to all who supported this wonderful initiative.