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Funding for students

There are a number of funding opportunities to help students with the costs associated with undergraduate and postgraduate study, including course fees, buying instruments and studying abroad.

Please check individual websites for details on eligibility, applications and deadlines.

Undergraduate and postgraduate costs

Charlotte Fraser Foundation

The Charlotte Fraser Foundation awards scholarships and bursaries to British woodwind, brass and voice postgraduate students who have received offers of places on MA or MMus courses at The Royal Academy of Music and The Royal College of Music.

Drake Calleja Trust

The Drake Calleja Trust awards scholarships to instrumentalists, singers and accompanists of undergraduate, postgraduate and research level studying at music colleges and conservatoires in the UK.

Eric Thompson Trust Annual Award

Open to organists at the start of their career who want to embark on a major project relating to the organ.

Faber Music and Sound and Music

Faber Music and Sound and Music have announced a new partnership offering ten Faber Music Bursaries available to young composers and music creators to attend the Sound and Music Summer School in 2021.

The Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts

Offers awards to young instrumental soloists or chamber ensembles, including financial assistance relating to private study in the UK or abroad, financial assistance to attend masterclasses, and living allowance and travel expenses in connection with a post-graduate course.

Royal Philharmonic Society

Offers a number of student funding opportunities including to further your studies, instrument costs and for studying abroad. There are also funding opportunities for organists and piano accompanists.

Society of Record Players

The Society of Recorder Players Walter Bergmann Fund helps young people under the age of 30 in their development as recorder players. You can apply to the fund for the cost of projects, instruments, tuition and so forth with a maximum award of approximately £850.

Sony Music UK

Sony Music UK is offering four bursaries as part of Nordoff Robbins’ music therapy masters programme. Each bursary covers the full £10,000 cost of studying the degree course, which is validated by Goldsmiths, University Of London.

The Albert Cooper Music Charitable Trust

The charity provides funds for tuition; help towards the purchase of an instrument; some living expenses incurred while in full time or postgraduate education or studies at a recognised music college or university in the UK.

The Countess of Munster Musical Trust: Postgraduate study

Open to instrumentalists, singers and composers.

The Mario Lanza Educational Foundation

For students who are living in the UK and studying singing full-time at college or a conservatoire.

The Muriel Taylor Scholarship Fund

A scholarship is awarded annually to a cellist between 17 and 23 for the purpose of further study.

The Musicians' Company

The Musicians' Company offer a number of awards and scholarships for study. Some are linked to specific institutions, for example musicians in the armed forces, while others are inter-collegiate awards for music students.

The Richard Antwi Scholarship

An annual scholarship aimed at supporting Black and minority ethnic students living in the UK. In order to apply you must hold an offer of a place to the MA Music Business Management course at the University of Westminster.

The Stephen Bell Charitable Trust: postgraduate study

For string players who need help with funding their first postgraduate degree in the UK.

Trinity Laban - TL Ignite

24 one-off grants of £750 are available. Applications are open to professional artists in any genre or style of music, dance or musical theatre and who are looking for support in their career development.  You must be over the age of 18, in the first five years of your creative career and living in the Boroughs of Greenwich or Lewisham or one of the surrounding boroughs of Southwark, Bromley or Bexley.

Vaughan Williams Bursaries: postgraduate study

For postgraduate composition students.

Yamaha Music Europe Foundation (YMEF)

Awarded annually and is aimed at students who are preparing for a professional musical career at a recognized educational institution within Europe. You must be 25 years of age or younger at the time the annual grant is awarded (usually February/March), and the scholarship takes the form of a one-time payment of between €1,000.00 and €2,000.00. The scholarship can be used for any purpose, as long as it contributes to the advancement of the winner's studies.

Studying abroad or location specific

Advanced Study Music Scholarships - Arts Council of Wales

Awards will be made to support postgraduate study for musicians from Wales or who have studied in Wales.

Coro Nuovo Bursary

To qualify, applicants must be in the age range 18 to 26 and have a connection with Sussex.

The Flentrop Scholarship

Open to full-time organ students under 25. The recipient will visit Zaandam, Holland for an introduction to organ-building and tuning, as well as lessons

The Radford Trust Charitable Trust

Applicants must be resident in Cornwall.

The RPS Julius Isserlis Scholarship

For study abroad for one or two years. Open to instrumentalists between the ages of 15 and 25, who are permanently resident in the UK.

Scholarships Trust

Scholarships are awarded annually to Scottish students at postgraduate level. Applicants must intend to take up a course of study away from their home town.

Health

Emerging Musicians' Health Scheme

If you are told you need short-term treatment that isn’t available promptly on the NHS, this scheme may be able to help with a grant towards the costs.

Instruments costs

Music for All

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to musical instruments and lessons. Music for All's Grant Application allows them to help people of all ages fulfil their musical dreams.

RPS instrument purchase grant

First year students and junior students who will shortly be embarking on full-time study are given priority.

Take it away

Take it away is a Creative United initiative that offers interest-free loans for musical instruments, equipment, software and tuition.

The Kent and Medway Young Musicians Trust: Grants

The Kent and Medway Young Musicians Trust supports young musicians up to the age of 25 within the Kent and Medway area. The grants can be used towards tuition fees, instruments, courses, and music. Currently funding of up to £400 per annum is available.

Musical Projects

Bert Jansch Foundation Grants

Offers acoustic music students and young professionals (between 18 and 30) an award of up to £500 to undertake musical projects that will help them in their studies or early career.

Youth Music: NextGen Fund

The NextGen Fund is aimed at emerging musicians and behind the scenes creatives, aged between 18–25-year-olds (under-30s if you identify as disabled), who require funding to launch a creative project, idea or business. Successful applicants will receive grants of up to £2,500.


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