Why support us?

Music is important to everyone. We all know the joy that listening to and making music brings us all. It's particularly important for young people.

Music tuition from a young age improves literacy, problem-solving skills, confidence, resilience and creativity.

Music is even more important given the pressures all young people face today.

With education policy focusing on ‘non-creative’ subjects, many schools are struggling to resist the pressure to sacrifice music for other priorities. Having access to quality music tuition has become a “school lottery" with a growing disparity between State and Independent schools.

Not all parents can afford to pay for music lessons. More than 40% of low-income families report that music lessons are beyond their budget.

Children with families earning £48,000 or more are twice as likely to learn an instrument compared to those whose parents earn £28,000 or less.

Surrey is a relatively affluent area of the UK. However, there are areas of deprivation even here in with 3 boroughs featuring in the second most deprived category in a nationwide survey and 8 more boroughs in the third most deprived category.

The disparity between the musical opportunities of rich and poor is probably greater in Surrey than anywhere else in the country.

There are many schools in Surrey where there are no qualified music teachers or insufficient funds to support music provision.

Our vision is that no young person should be precluded from taking music lessons because either their parents cannot afford them or they are not inspired to take up lessons.

Our mission is to help fund music lessons for financially disadvantaged children and young people in Surrey, whatever their level of musical development. We level the music playing field by funding inspirational performances to encourage children to take up instruments or singing in schools where historically take-up has been low.

We are a registered charity staffed by volunteers and with no overheads. 100% of your donation goes to help or inspire children and young people to make music. The Cheryl King Trust does not duplicate what others already do but funds local and national organisations with a deep expertise in teaching and inspiring children and young people to make music.

At present we are only able to help a limited number of children in a limited number of schools, most of which are supported by Surrey Arts. That work needs ongoing funding.

With your help, we could inspire many more children across the county to make music in the future.

We could arrange more performances in more schools, including those not served by Surrey Arts, to inspire children to take up music lessons. We can provide the financial support that will enable them to start and continue to experience the joy of making music.