Growing your group and audiences

About the event: 

Scientific research by neuroscientists and psychologists proves that learning and playing music is good for your brain, whenever you start. But how can we use the science to persuade more people to take part, or to draw in the support our groups’ need? Our guest speaker Dr Anita Collins will talk about neuromusical research on the benefits for adult musicians, and how to use this information to boost our advocacy.  

Is your music group missing out on Creative Tax Reliefs? Instrumental, musical theatre and opera groups could qualify – and you don’t have to be paying tax to claim it.

Creative Tax Reliefs (CTR) are offered by HMRC as a way to incentivize the creative industries. A common misconception is that you have to be paying tax to claim tax relief. But that is not true. Charities that have not previously paid any tax can still claim tax reliefs, and receive a payment from HMRC. All the groups we help claim CTR are charities

Running your group is a rewarding but challenging role. Our regular meetups are a chance for you to meet and share learning and ideas with other Wales groups facing similar challenges, explore specific issues affecting leisure-time music making in Wales and consider how we can work collaboratively to find solutions and advocate for the sector. 

Miranda Glen, Wales manager, will be leading this session.

In this meetup we'll:

Running your group is a rewarding but challenging role. Our regular meetups are a chance for you to meet and share learning and ideas with other Scotland groups facing similar challenges, explore specific issues affecting leisure-time music making in Scotland and consider how we can work collaboratively to find solutions and advocate for the sector. 

Alison Reeves, Scotland manager, will be leading this session.

In this meetup we'll:

Running your group is a rewarding but challenging role. Our regular meetups are a chance for you to meet and share learning and ideas with other Northern Ireland groups facing similar challenges, explore specific issues affecting leisure-time music making in Northern Ireland and consider how we can work collaboratively to find solutions and advocate for the sector. 

Stephen McNally, Northern Ireland manager, will be leading this session.

In this meetup we'll:

If you’re working on bringing new people into your concert audiences, tackling access barriers can help open doors. As part of our Access and Inclusion programme, this event will suggest actions you can take to attract a wider diversity of people to your concerts and what you can do to welcome and include people in this new experience.

Your Making music membership offers a wealth of benefits. They are designed to support you running your music group, to save time, effort and money, as well as offer ideas and inspiration.

But are you making the most of your membership? In this event we will explain what you have access to - and how we can help.

We'll talk about some of the main benefits:

To fully include everyone in our music activities, we need to understand the barriers that stop people from attending, taking part or progressing. In the Conversation about inclusion series of events, hear about the issues from the perspective of those who directly experience barriers and discuss what we can do to change things from within our own music groups.