90 Years Old in 2007

To mark the ISM Members Fund’s 90th birthday this year, we went back to a few members who had received help from the Fund in the past and asked them what they now felt about the assistance they had been given. Three responded with summaries of their stories, which are reproduced here.

All three individuals are distinguished members of the Society. All have served on the ISM’s Council. Two are past Specialist Section Wardens and have also served on the Executive Committee. This illustrates how unexpected adversity, whether physical injury or redundancy from a long-held teaching post, can hit any member of the Society, however talented and professionally successful. A musician’s career is precarious even at the best of times.

The Members Fund is there to help members through the bad times by offering financial grants to cushion the impact on bank balances. It assists members who are off work for a prolonged period because of illness or injury, particularly where problems are worsened by the fact that the member has a young family to support, or by long waiting lists for medical treatment. Sadly, in some cases, the difficulties do not go away completely, and the member will need – and receive – the Fund’s continuing assistance over many years.

On the other hand, there are many cases where difficulties have been overcome and the Fund has assisted members along the way to a happy ending, as can been seen from the three stories featured here.

The ISM would like to offer its very best wishes for the future to these writers and all other beneficiaries of the Members Fund, both past and present, in this, its milestone birthday year. We would also reiterate our grateful thanks to all donors to the Fund, without whose support it would not have the financial resources needed to carry out its work.

Anyone who would like to make a donation should send a cheque, payable to ‘the ISM Benevolent Fund’, to the Members Fund Officer at ISM, Freepost 32WD4539, London W1E 3YZ.

The ISM Members Fund is the working name of the Benevolent Fund of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, registered charity No 206801.

“I have been involved with the ISM for many years at various levels. Way back I might even have been one of only two people who chaired a young members’ committee. For some time I was closely involved in assessing applications for assistance from the Members Fund. In that capacity I heard of all sorts of difficulties experienced by musicians, but never dreamed that I would myself become someone in desperate need of help. I had always been a healthy and busy clarinettist.

Suddenly, while on tour in Taiwan, I realised that the fingers of my right hand were not working very well. They got worse, and I thought I would have to give up playing professionally. The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine sent me to the wonderful Dr Ian Winspur, who found that a growth on my arm had damaged a nerve. After an operation and a long period of physiotherapy, I now play again, but less than I did, and have to choose my repertoire carefully.

As the majority of my income came from performing, there was a dramatic effect on my bank balance. I was not earning as much as formerly, yet had to find additional money for the operation and the extensive post-operational care. I swallowed my pride and approached the ISM Members Fund. I was dealt with most professionally – speedily, objectively and confidentially. The financial assistance was an enormous help at a very challenging point in my life.”

“Only one year out of college, and having just moved to another part of the country, I found myself with a broken shoulder following a nasty accident about two weeks before Christmas. The situation at the time seemed terrible. I was about 24, so had very little behind me; I was faced with the challenges of a new area – not much work to start with, and additional expenses in moving; Christmas for organists is an important time, and I was forced to miss it altogether, whereas it would have been a useful time for me to make the public more aware of my existence. Eight weeks without teaching, playing, examining or conducting my choirs might have ruined me at a vulnerable time. I remain extremely grateful to the ISM Members Fund for its financial support when I needed it most and was completely unable to earn a living on my own.”

“The crisis came after 27 years as head of department in a further education college in a northern town, which was going through depression and unemployment. A new principal meant cuts. Courses were closed down and I was made redundant. It was a personal crisis, too – I faced financial hardship, with my sons just entering higher education. I needed to re-think my career. It had always seemed easy to point the way, and the opportunities available, to students; but it was different at 50, to find yourself in the Styx, with shaky finances.

Fortunately I had been an ISM member for 27 years. I lifted the telephone and dialled the number. I was given the highest quality of professional advice, and immediate support while I re-focused my career.

Ten years later, I am established in another northern town, teaching piano and singing from beginner to diploma level. I am again encouraging young people to enter the profession, and older ones to discover the joys of music-making. I now work with other musicians, too, accompanying at concerts throughout the country.

I have found the ISM to be an organisation which understands and responds to the needs of its members, throughout their career and beyond.”

 

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