Support & Access

It’s important to us that no young person misses out on the opportunities on offer at NYPBS due to barriers, financial or otherwise. 

We care about this so much that for 20 years we’ve managed to offer the NYPBS Ensembles programme entirely free of charge. For context, our counterparts in other genres charge between c. £500-£1,500 per participant. 

Everyone’s place at NYPBS is fully subsidised, we are only able to do this thanks to support from Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative. However this means that our capacity to maintain a more bespoke Bursary Fund is incredibly limited.  This limited amount is dependent on what we can raise from YMI and Trusts & Foundations and varies each year. 

We know that whilst we are providing the programme free of charge that for many of you there are still significant costs involved, particularly for those of you travelling large distances for rehearsals. 

In the past we’ve offered support on an ad hoc basis, where we can, including assistance with accommodation. However, we were a little concerned that this system was too reactive and given our very limited capacity in this area we want to make sure we’re being as thorough and fair as possible. 

Now that we’ve resolved all incomplete applications for this year, we are going to invite applications for support in stages. To start with we’re looking to understand the level of support potentially being asked for.

We’re inviting Stage 1 Bursary Forms to be submitted by 3rd November 2023: airtable.com/app59X0R16UtEm5Qd/shr4ixQHP2fshZIsg

This is important to us and we believe it’s worthwhile getting this right and taking the time to work through this properly. Although we completely understand that this will delay any support we can offer until after the first couple of rehearsals, so if anyone is facing significant, immediate challenges concerning the first couple of rehearsals please contact us at nypb@thepipingcentre.co.uk and give us a clear outline of the barrier(s) you’re facing. 

If we are fortunate enough to receive additional significant funding towards bursary support later in the year, we will reach out to all participants and coordinate further access support. 

If there’s anything else we can do to make your experience more comfortable and inclusive at NYPBS please do let us know. You can contact us at nypb@thepipingcentre.co.uk or talk to us about this in-person at rehearsals.