Youth Music Awards 2019 - Breakthrough Award sponsored by the MU

Brighter Sound (Manchester)

Maisie's nominator says, "Maisie (18) is a talented self-taught singer-songwriter and guitarist. She has mental health problems and is being supported by a specialist team at her hospital."

"Maisie has shown true strength of character and resilience in accepting help and support and moving onto a path of recovery, using music as both an outlet to express and process her feelings, as well as a welcome relief and respite. She began coming to Sing City (Brighter Sound’s songwriting project for young musicians) as a shy and anxious young person who hadn’t been able to play any music for three years. Through gentle encouragement and appropriate guidance within a supportive environment, she’s blossomed into a willing collaborator, a gifted lyricist and an all-round creative and inspiring musician with growing confidence and increased self-assurance.

"She has had huge wins – stepping out of her comfort zone in participating in a residency with 14 older musicians, singing without the cushioning of her guitar to an audience of nearly 1,000, deciding to work towards a Gold Arts Award, producing a sold-out live performance themed around climate change, and most recently, despite being unable to complete A Levels due to hospital admissions, she was brave enough to successfully audition for an unconditional place to study popular music at Salford University. Maisie now wants to help others and will be volunteering at a future project to support and encourage younger musicians."

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Basement Studio - Making Tracks (Bristol)

Chloe's nominator says, “Sadness and anger often got in the way of Chloe being able to engage with mainstream activities in her late teens, but in the past 18 months she has made incredible progress, using Basement Studio's Making Tracks project to get support and referrals to specialist help with a range of situations holding her back in her life."

"Despite suffering acute social anxiety and depression, having no family support since she was 10 years old, and managing on subsistence finances, she focused on positive opportunities and used music to heal herself and move forward. Sometimes music was the only voice she had and she could only make music on her own. But as things gradually got better for her she attended Knowle West Media Centre’s 'For Her' music workshops, residential and performances last summer; and performed at Trinity and Basement showcase events.

"Last year she enrolled on a Music Composition L3 course. She makes beautiful, calm electronic music and loves learning, but found it hard being with people every day and had to leave six weeks before the course completed. But she's in a very different place now - more confident and better prepared as she plans to attend Access To Music this September. In the meantime she makes music whenever she can. We are all very proud of her and her amazing journey - music is the main thing in her life.”

London Symphony Orchestra – Soundbox (London)

“Ruby’s participation in the project marks a major leap for her personally and creatively. When Ruby was five, she suffered a cardiac arrest at school and after a prolonged resuscitation she sustained a very severe brain injury."

"As a consequence, she is very limited in what she can do physically and can no longer express herself verbally. Cognitively she is unaffected. Soundbox has been a great experience for her. The team are incredibly supportive, patient and generous and understand Ruby's situation.

"Ruby uses a programme called Clarion to create music with the ensemble on her Tobii eye gaze device - learning to use an eye gaze device is really tough and it's hard to control! Performance has always been incredibly upsetting and stressful for Ruby - after years of assessment by well-meaning therapists and doctors, she usually feels like she has failed.

"At school she has opted out of performances and assemblies because she doesn't want to be looked at and judged to have failed. To see Ruby participating in Soundbox, including in their shows, is such an important piece of progress for her. She has lots to learn about developing her musical creativity and it's complicated by the fact that she often is in a lot of pain and discomfort from her various conditions. But participating in Soundbox has helped her develop a space for her to feel confident in to be herself, and I am incredibly proud of her and excited to see where she will go next.”

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School Ground Sounds – Grit School (London)

“Paul was referred to us through a charity called Divert, who work with young people in the youth justice system to signpost them towards positive opportunities.”

“When we first met Paul, he was already a very talented drummer and was interested in joining the grit school (our core music industry crash course for 16-24 year olds). We instantly saw that he was committed and dedicated to the opportunity. Throughout The Grit School Paul was enthusiastic, dedicated, reliable and collaborative.

“He was open-minded, willing to help, and keen to work with different people across a host of different genres. We witnessed his talent and were blown away that at just 17 he is already such an accomplished musician with so much potential. Paul played the drums for all 13 acts at our Grit School showcase and also as part of his own band. 

“His performance captured the attention of music journalist and social worker, Ciaran Thapar which lead to Paul being featured in an article in GQ magazine and an interview on BBC News.

“Paul went on to be part of Dame-Lola's band who won a support slot at Mighty Hoopla with Chaka Khan. Paul also performed on our stage at Lambeth Country Show this year. 

“He continues to stay motivated and plugged into opportunities in music. He’s pursuing avenues to get into music college and is part of the School Ground Sounds mentoring programme. We are very excited for his future as a musician and look forward to see what is to come"

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