Celebrating 28 years of the Irene Taylor Trust!

This week we’re celebrating 28 years of the Irene Taylor Trust! From running three prison projects in our first year, to supporting over 600 people annually, our reach and work have grown significantly, but our mission remains the same; to inspire positive change in marginalised individuals through creating music. Our focus is on showing participants how much they are capable of achieving by providing high-quality, meaningful creative experiences, supporting them to realise their potential by making positive life changes and developing transferable skills.

Let’s look back on some highlights from over the years…

Of course, it all began with our work in prisons. Here John tells us how Music in Prisons was “my connection to the outside world and inner self” and how it “fostered him through those bad times” as he worked through the mix of emotions while serving his sentence, helping him to build confidence and move towards the future beyond prison. We continued to support John after his release through our Sounding Out programme. John also performs his original song ‘Take Me to the Place’, backed by ITT’s fabulous musicians.

We first met Noble during his time in prison and continued to support him after his release through our Sounding Out programme. Here he tells us how working with us “opened my eyes, kept me focussed, kept me going…” and performs his original song ‘Default Musik’.

Helen and Lucine originally took part our Making Tracks projects for young people experiencing challenging circumstances. Both have progressed to our Young Producers scheme, trained with us as Young Workshop Leaders and joined our Advisory Group. Lucine is also one of our current Emerging Artists. Helen tells us that “the Irene Taylor Trust is a support system around you… like extended family” and how song-writing helped to process negative emotions. Lucine tells us how Making Tracks was “pure synergy” with a very “positive impact” that helped her to pursue her passion for music. Lucine also performs original number ‘How Does It Feel?’.

We first met Darren during his time in prison and continued to support him after his release through our Sounding Out programme. Here he tells us how song-writing whilst in prison helped him to maintain healthy relationships with loved ones on the outside and performs his original song ‘You and Me’.

These interviews and performances were originally recorded as part of our 25^th year celebrations in November 2020 (due to the pandemic we moved our celebrations online), filmed and edited by Felipe Pagani.

We first met talented young drill-fusion artist Macelino on a Making Tracks project in partnership with the Prince’s Trust in London – subsequently he joined our Young Producers scheme and is now one of our Emerging Artists. Hear how making music has developed his self-confidence, wellbeing and aspirations to help others in turn.

In 2012 Music in Prisons was delighted to be included in a unique programme as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad; PRS Foundation’s New Music 20×12 consisted of twenty new pieces of music, each 12 minutes in length, celebrating the talent and imagination of the UK’s musical community. We were honoured to be selected to take part in such a prestigious project, enabling men in prison to contribute their voices to this national event, creating a piece titled ‘Beyond This’ in collaboration with contemporary composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and ITT musicians Nick Hayes, Charles Stuart and Sara Lee. In total, 15 men in prison and 4 members of prison staff contributed to the creation and performance of the piece.

In order to bring ‘Beyond This’ to the outside world, we brought on board artist Lizzie Coombes and film-maker Andy Wood to create this beautiful accompanying film.

Last year we marked 10 years of extending our work from prisons into the community. We created the  Making Tracks programme to bring these same benefits to young people in the community and Sounding Out to develop the skills of former-prisoner musicians. We celebrated a decade of this work in the community in 2022 with a special collaborative project, during which InsideJob Productions created this film.

Our 10^th anniversary celebrations for Sounding Out and Making Tracks culminated in a special live show at Rich Mix.

We have collaborated with many amazing organisations and artists over the years on a range of special projects, but one of our most important has been partnering with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to bring the Lullaby Project to the UK. BBC Radio 4 followed the creative process of working with dad’s in prison for a special documentary which you can listen to here.

‘Daddy’s Little Man’ was co-written with a father in prison for his young son. ITT musician Nick Hayes, who orchestrates all the lullabies for the RPO ensemble to perform, created this special choral arrangement specially for Proms At Home 2020 series. The BBC Singers did a fabulous job recording themselves remotely for this film, made during lockdown restrictions. Our thanks to the BBC Proms for permission to share.

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If you’d like to help us to reach more people, information on how to support us is here.