30 WILTSHIRE LIFE Awards 2018
What winning an award did for us: Wiltshire Music Centre
Last year we were honoured to receive The
Arts and Culture Award at the Wiltshire
Life Awards 2017, as recognition of our
commitment and continued devotion to
providing the highest quality live music
experience to people of all ages and abilities.
At Wiltshire Music Centre we constantly
strive to offer an engaging artistic programme
of live music across the classical, world,
contemporary, jazz and folk genres, as well as to
deliver an increasingly extensive creative learning
programme, both at the centre and across the
county. The award meant a lot to everyone
involved in making this happen behind the
scenes, and brought additional visibility to the
organisation as a whole. This is particularly
important as we operate in an increasingly
pressured funding environment and we need
everyone’s support to keep maximising the
opportunities for live music to inspire,
enrich and transform people’s lives.
Wiltshire Music Centre now stands
as a venue of national significance. The
centre welcomes more than 60,000
visitors every year to enjoy more
than 160 events and activities,
and engages with 5,000 young
people across the region as part
of its Creative Learning projects.
World-renowned performers
are attracted to the venue,
including trumpeter Alison
Balsom, the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, folk
artist Kathryn Tickell and jazz
legend Courtney Pine.
Wiltshire Music Centre also works
strategically with key local and national partners
to deliver an exemplary programme of concerts,
education and community work which
encompasses all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
Just two examples of large-scale community
events are the annual Bradford Roots Festival in
January and My Science Fair in March.
This year, Wiltshire Music Centre celebrates
its 20th anniversary with a host of special
projects and events, including a Big Family
Music Day on June 23, a new String Quartet
Fellowship, a production of West Side Story at
the Forum in Bath in partnership with Bath
Festival on May 19, pre-concert supper clubs,
The Big Live Music Quiz on May 4 and a
fantastic disability arts festival in the autumn.
We also plan to take 80 of our brilliant West of
England Youth Orchestra and Wiltshire Youth
Jazz Orchestra young musicians on tour to
France in the summer.
We have launched an ambitious £100,000
appeal to support the centre’s future which
has three key priorities:
• Music-making for all: our Creative
Learning programme in the community
• Artistic excellence: bringing the UK and
world’s best musicians to Wiltshire
• A greener future: new auditorium lighting
(LEDs)
We look forward to celebrating this
anniversary with everyone in Wiltshire.
By chief executive of Wiltshire Music
Centre, Maud Saint-Sardos
The Ar ts
and Culture
Award 2017
The award meant a
lot to everyone who
works behind the
scenes and brought
additional visibility to
the organisation
as a whole