The Southwold Music Trust was founded by Nathan Williamson in 2015. The trustees are all local and have strong, long-standing ties to the town of Southwold.
Our aim is very simple – we want to see music, and music-making, as central to our community and its surrounding area.
We were chosen as one of Southwold Town Mayor’s nominated charities in our first year, since when we have supported a number of concerts in Southwold’s St. Edmund’s Church and Southwold Arts Centre, as well as staging major education and performance initiatives for local young people, working closely with Southwold Primary School, Reydon Primary School, Saint Felix Prep School, and Jubilee Opera.
During the pandemic the Southwold Music Trust was instrumental in keeping music alive in Southwold. We were particularly pleased to support violinists Magnus and Marije Johnston, who found themselves marooned in Southwold when the lockdown started. They took to playing their violins outside their front door on Thursday evenings as part of the NHS tributes. As lockdown was released, these informal ‘soirees’ took on a life of their own, attracting an audience of locals gathering outside, simply overjoyed to hear live music again.
Many of the audience insisted that they wanted to make a financial contribution for these events, and the Southwold Music Trust established a ‘Musicians-in-Exile’ fund, receiving donations and adding Gift Aid for the benefit of the musicians. 100% of this money went straight to these two musicians.
Since then we have moved indoors with a series of ‘Covid Concerts’, presenting music to socially distanced audiences in St Edmund’s Church, as well as live-streaming special concerts directly into Southwold Primary School and a number of local residential care homes.
For more updates and to join our mailing list please visit the Southwold Music Trust website.
