A HUGE thankyou to our sponsors, partners and donors for their continued support.
​
As a small music education charity, we welcome all support no matter how big or small and can offer bespoke packages to businesses wishing to partner with us. Individual donations of good quality instruments are also always welcome. Please contact Jess O'Neill to discuss further.
SMA would like to thank the estate of Dorothy Hampson for the donation of a beautiful Welmar piano to our teaching rooms.
After graduation from the Royal Academy of Music in 1951, Dorothy spent 2 years at the Ginner-Mawr ballet school in Cheltenham. She met Elgar there and other musical luminaries of the time. She decided to return to Sheffield, and after marriage devoted the rest of her career to teaching and accompanying.
Dorothy's father Leonard Horton, who first encouraged her to play piano, was the leader and musical arranger of Loxley brass band from the 1920s on, and also composed some local carols. His son John Horton (to whom the piano has been bequeathed) now resides in Nice but still plays trombone into his late eighties.
All of our students will benefit from this donation, for which we are extremely grateful.
Our Patrons
Ryan Wigglesworth
Ryan Wigglesworth is a pianist, conductor and composer.
​
He was born in Wincobank, Sheffield, attended King Edward VII School and was a Cathedral choirboy. After that he went to Charterhouse School then was organ scholar at New College Oxford.
​
Ryan went to Guildhall and lectured at Corpus Christi Cambridge for 2 years. He made his conducting debut in Sheffield during the summer of 2014 with the Halle as their Principle Guest Conductor and will be back in the coming seasons.
​
Elizabeth Watts
Elizabeth Watts was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and studied archaeology at Sheffield University before attending the Royal College of Music and studying with Lillian Watson. She graduated in 2005 with distinction and was awarded the ‘Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’ Rose Bowl for outstanding achievement.
​
Elizabeth won the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Prize, the 2007 Outstanding Young Artist Award at the Cannes “MIDEM Classique Awards” and gained international recognition at the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, winning the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize and becoming a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.
In 2011 she won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and was appointed as an Artist in Residence at London’s South-bank Centre.
