About Us

As the only City of London Livery Company dedicated to the performing arts, we nurture talent and share music through our concerts, outreach, awards and young artists’ programme. We focus on three areas: City, Craft and Community.

Our Company: A Modern City Livery

• We’re proud of our 500-year heritage as a City Livery Company
• We manage a large membership, which consists of around 150 Freemen, and 450 Liverymen, making us the fifth largest Company in the City of London, and the largest without a hall
• We offer a wider programme of social and cultural events for Company members
• We play a full and active role in the City of London – our Liverymen take part in the annual elections of Sheriffs and the Lord Mayor of London: the Company has produced two Lord Mayors of London in recent years, Sir Andrey Parmley (2016) and Sir Roger Gifford (2012)
• We support many City of London key events such as the Lord Mayor’s Show and the United Guilds Service
• We work with other Livery Companies on Pan-Livery initiatives
• Many of our Members volunteer on one of our committees or in our music outreach work, using their expertise to further our charitable aims

Our Craft: The Music Profession

• We nurture and support emerging musicians by our prizes, bursaries, scholarships, and awards given to music students of the highest calibre, awarding around £200,000/year
• These awards support training in an ever-expanding range of musical genres and craft, including classical, jazz, contemporary, brass band, popular music and musical theatre
• Made up of our Musicians’ Company award winners, our Young Artists’ Programme supports these 200 Artists during the vital first few years of professional practice, by securing opportunities for performance, professional development, publicity and outreach work. We invest over £20,000/year on the Programme
• We support our Young Artists to share their skills and passion with the wider community, and coach them to develop the music participation leadership skills needed in a C21st musician
• We forge close ties with world-leading music education organisations, working with partners such as: RAM, RCM, RCS, RNCM, RWCMD, RCO, Guildhall, Trinity Laban, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, ACM, LCM, BIMM, City University, the Royal Marines, Royal Military and Royal Air Force Schools of Music, and Clifton College, Christs’ Hospital School, Arts Educational Schools, the BRIT School, the National Youth Orchestra, NYJO and St Paul’s Cathedral School
• We celebrate the work of eminent people in the musical field through awards and events

Our Community: Concerts, Events and Outreach

• We organise concerts by our award winners at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room, and give funding to concerts and festivals throughout the UK
• We lead a large music outreach programme, working with many diverse communities including London schools, SEND institutions, hospitals and most recently with groups of dementia patients and their carers
• We provide high quality live and online music in engaging, participatory sessions. Our events use music to inspire, excite and motivate our audiences.
• Drawn from the Company membership, our dedicated outreach team organise these music workshops, which are delivered free of charge to the institutions
• We celebrate the best music education through our awards: the Patricia Prindl award for outreach, the Jazz education award and the Mortimer Medal for Brass Brand education

We are also known as ‘The Worshipful Company of Musicians’.