Always on
This project successfully funded on 27th March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
WRE Young Professionals Programme
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us grow our mission to provide side-by-side 'apprentice' training to talented young musicians, giving them a professional platform.
Who are we?
The West Riding Ensemble is a professional string chamber group, based in Sheffield. Uniquely, we offer opportunities to talented young players to work alongside seasoned musicians in an apprenticeship-style training environment - not only performing in professional settings, but also learning the tools of the trade that all freelance musicians need to make a career in performance.
Founder David Milsom’s expertise not only as a player but also as an internationally-known scholar of string performance styles brings to the table a rich pool of knowledge, and enlightens the ensemble's fresh, informed approach to established repertoire.
We hold firm to the principle that professional musicians should always be paid a fair fee for the work they do. Concerts are financially risky, and although we work hard to publicise our performances and bring in audiences, there is never a guarantee that costs will be covered from ticket sales alone.
What kind of projects do wo do?
In our first year, we gave young musicians opportunities to perform alongside seasoned professionals in a variety of genres - from accompanying choirs, to touring a string quartet programme, and expanding to symphonic proportions for a programme that included one of our talented proteges performing Mendelssohn's iconic violin concerto to a full house.
2026 begins with an intimate 'salon' style performance of Chopin's piano concerto no. 2 in a string quintet version, and Franck's violin sonata, involving three young Sheffield musicians who will soon be embarking on their conservatoire training, and early-career artist Alice Power at the piano.
Our year continues in March with an exciting programme that spotlights a brand new work written for us, alongside Poulenc's organ concerto and Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia for double string orchestra. Later in the spring we have another 'salon' concert including Mozart's clarinet quintet, which gives a debut chamber music platform to a budding young Sheffield clarinetist.
We also have a number of choral accompaniments in our schedule, which give valuable experience to our proto-professional young musicians.
Why do we need your support?
Concerts are costly to put on! We try to price our tickets to be as inclusive as possible (including free seats for under-18s), and it is a balancing act between pricing out audiences, and covering all our costs.
Our March 2026 concert, for example, will cost in excess of £6000 if we maintain our principle of paying fair fees to our professionals and aspiring youngsters for the work they deliver. We are therefore launching this fundraiser to help support our work beyond the revenue we can expect from ticket sales.
What will we do with the money raised?
WRE is a not-for-profit organisation. We pay fair fees to all those involved in a professional concert, and re-invest all surplus funds in our educational objectives.
Learn about our forthcoming projects
Our Ticketsource page has details of our next concerts: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/west-riding-ensemble/
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made