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There were enough funds to run at least one more annual festival when the decision was taken to close it – there were just not enough remaining volunteers with time available to organise it.
The Trustees decided to distribute the remaining funds to other organisations that can further the Festival’s activities of promoting music performance and education, with a particular emphasis on children and young people, and focussing on the Wantage area.
A particular need that was identified was for children who show talent in initial music lessons. There comes a point when they would benefit from progression from group to individual tuition to help them reach their potential, but the additional cost of this is not so easily affordable.
Funds were distributed to:
Caritas Children’s Choir – to subsidise transport to Birmingham to enable participation in the Music for Youth National Festival 2025.
Opera Unmasked – to subsidise venue and piano hire for a concert featuring mainly local participants.
Oxfordshire Fund for Music – to support state-school children in the Wantage area learning an instrument with the County Music Service.
Wantage Silver Band – (a) to provide a bursary fund for 18s and under to assist with tuition costs and (b) to subsidise payment of an accompanist for the WSB Solo Series Concerts.
The legacy of Wantage Music Festival
is not only in the form of cash grants. The festival has also enriched the lives of many aspiring musicians, young and not so young, who have been given a platform to perform and have also learnt from the constructive feedback from our highly experienced adjudicators.
It has been a privilege to watch many of these performers grow as musicians as they returned to the Festival year after year.
Some have gone on to make music their profession, either as performers or as teachers, and some have even performed on TV or radio. Others have continued to enjoy performing music and delighting local audiences as amateurs in choirs, orchestras and bands or as soloists.