Guildhall School of Music & Drama is delighted to announce it has been granted £637,000 of Leverhulme Arts Scholarships over the next three years by the Leverhulme Trust. This includes major scholarship support for undergraduate and postgraduate musicians, as well as for children and young people under the age of 18 studying with Guildhall Young Artists, including Junior Guildhall and Centre for Young Musicians.

Guildhall School’s grant is the second largest of the 57 specialist arts institutions funded by the Leverhulme Trust and comes in addition to Leverhulme research grants made to the School. The awards include a 112% increase in funding from the Trust for Guildhall Young Artists of £286,000, as well as a 30% increase for both undergraduate and postgraduate music scholarships, with £253,500 for students studying on its Guildhall Artist Masters and Artist Diploma programmes, and £97,500 for undergraduate music students.

Guildhall School is the UK’s largest single provider of specialist music education for under-18s, with over 1,400 young people aged between 4 and 18 studying at its Guildhall Young Artists network of centres, including young people from every London borough, 18 different English counties and in some cases, from outside the UK. The Leverhulme Trust’s generous support will provide around 200 scholarships for young people at Guildhall Young Artists centres over the next three years. In addition to Junior Guildhall and five branches of Centre for Young Musicians, a new Guildhall Young Artists Online centre opens this week, offering online music tuition to help widen the School’s reach nationally and internationally.

Interim Principal, Jonathan Vaughan said: ‘I am incredibly grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for their continued support of Guildhall School. With the generous support of our donors, in particular the Leverhulme Trust, Guildhall School is committed to aiming to ensure that no student faces financial barriers to studying with us.’

Guildhall School is deeply committed to equality of opportunity and students are admitted solely on the basis of merit. Guildhall School aims to ensure that no student who is offered a place is prevented from taking up that place on grounds of financial hardship: the School awards in excess of £3million in financial support per annum, with over 40% of students receiving some level of support, thanks to a diverse body of funders such as the Leverhulme Trust and many other generous individuals, City livery companies, trusts and foundations.