Christmas message from RSM

As we reach the end of another year, RSM’s work continues to support more music professionals than ever before.

This year has been another very positive one at RSM; however 2024 has also sadly seen more demand than ever for our support, with 520 musicians receiving financial assistance – an increase of 8% on the previous year. We continue to work hard to distribute our funds in the most efficient way and to ensure we reach musicians across the UK, from all areas of the profession and at all stages of their careers. This year we supported musicians aged from 19 to 96. Our Health and Wellbeing initiatives, which complement our grant giving, have also developed, and we continue to increase our partnerships with like-minded organisations to ensure we can maximise our impact across the profession. This year we have been delighted to announce partnerships with Equity Charitable Trust, London Singers’ Collective and Music Support.

Our membership numbers also continue to grow and we have welcomed 116 music professionals to our community this year. Our Members join us today purely for altruistic reasons and we feel very lucky to have over 2,000 like-minded music professionals amongst us, who each act as our Ambassadors across the profession.

In May, we were honoured when His Majesty The King accepted patronage of The Royal Society of Musicians, thus continuing our long history of support from The Royal Family, dating back to 1790 when King George III granted the Society its Royal Charter. We truly value the support The Royal Family has give our wonderful charity over so many years.

With so much going on, this is an exciting period of growth for RSM; however, demand from the music sector now outstrips our resources and as such, we have made the decision to recruit an additional member of staff in the coming year – a Head of Development. This newly created post will enable us to increase our fundraising activities to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of music professionals across the UK, which will in turn enable RSM to continue to support a thriving musical landscape for generations to come.

On behalf of everyone at RSM, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all in 2025.