The Edinburgh University Music Society has always played a part in increasing visibility and raising awareness and funds for local charities. Our involvement can be through raising money for a charity, or through a hands-on musical contribution (or both!).
Whether the charities we work with are music-based or not, we are always keen to bring more music to the users of the charities. Because we believe community involvement is most successful if it is sustainable, we are keen to build up long-term relationships with particular charities. We have numerous projects which operate on an annual basis, and we keep in contact with organisations with whom we already have a relationship.
As well as raising funds for charities, EUMS is always delighted to get involved in a more musical role. We have worked with Drake Music Scotland, a fantastic charity which concentrates on creating opportunities for children and adults to learn, compose and perform music independently.
We are eager to learn from them about how we can make our ensembles, projects and concerts more easily accessible to disabled children and adults, and to promote the excellent work they do. We very much look forward to working with them again in the near future; to find out more about Drake Music Scotland follow this link.
Every Autumn we run our biggest charity event of the year: the Big Sing, which we run on behalf of the Bethany Christian Trust. The event is a Come-and-Sing where all are welcome. It is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to get singing, and all of the money raised goes to Bethany’s Stop Homelessness campaign.
We love to put on community projects involving classical music, so as well as raising money for Bethany, we’re thrilled that the Big Sing gets so many different people singing.
If you’d like to find out more about the Bethany Christian Trust and how you can get involved, click here for more information.
We have also worked with LifeCare (Edinburgh) Ltd, a charity based in Edinburgh who work with the frail elderly and those with dementia. We have successfully sung carols in some of their care centres at Christmas time.
To find out more about LifeCare, go to their website.
The Edinburgh University Music Society also perform carols across Edinburgh at venues like the Southside Community Centre, Foodies Christmas market, at St. Catharine’s Homeless Project and anywhere else where we might get a warm feeling going in a cold Edinburgh winter.
All of the charities we support we feel are fantastically worthwhile in their own right, but we also love to bring our vision of spreading music to these charities, be it through a musical fundraising event, or through making music more accessible to the users of these charities.
If you are interested in how EUMS could get involved with your charity, or indeed working with us on a fundraising event, we’d love to hear from you: please email our Community Outreach Manager at community@eums.org.uk.
Edinburgh University Music Society
The University of Edinburgh
Alison House
12 Nicolson Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9DF