How can you help?

Please click on a heading below to find out more.

Make a Donation

Any donation that you make will make a huge difference.

To make a donation, please send cheques addressed to 'The Leicester-Shire Music and Cultural Trust' to LCB Depot, 31, Rutland Street, Leicester, LE1 1RE.

By bank transfer, our details are as follows:

Account Name: The Leicester-Shire Music and Cultural Trust
Account Number: 61813757
Sort Code: 40-24-19

(Please use your Surname and initial as the payment reference together with the type of donation you will be making if relevant, e.g. OtherAN Bursary)

If you are a UK taxpayer you can also help us receive 25% extra on any donations that make by simply completing a gift aid declaration form.

Make a regular donation:

If you would like to make a regular donation you can set up a standing order for any monthly amount you wish to donate.

Become a Patron

Become a patron:

If you would like to become a patron of The Leicester-Shire Music and Cultural Trust then please click here for more information or contact us at leicsmct@gmail.com.

Sign up to EasyFundraising

You can also register with easyfundraising.org.uk and choose to support The Leicester-Shire Music and Cultural Trust (found under 'T' for The). There are hundreds of well-known retailers and holiday companies registered with easyfundraising.org.uk who will donate a % of your purchase price simply for being directed from the easyfundraising.org.uk website to their own website. What's more, it doesn't even cost you a penny!

To see a short video on how Easyfundraising works - click here!

Become a Volunteer

If you have any time spare to assist with the running of concerts, selling programmes, refreshments or even rattling a collection tin then please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

Become a Trustee

We currently have vacancies on our board of trustees, to find out more about applying to become a trustee please see our trustee document & skills audit document.

How will your donation help?

The Leicester-Shire Music and Cultural Trust run a range of Leicester-Shire Schools Central Ensembles, offering a variety of opportunities for all children of differing abilities. This currently costs around £140,000 per Academic Year to run.

Your support could help to sustain and grow the number of opportunities we are able to offer to our young people both now and in the future.

  • Hiring or buying sheet music to allow our groups to perform exciting and aspirational repertoire costs around £100 to buy per set.
  • £85 will fund a one term or £255 will fund a one-year bursary for a student to be a member of the Leicester-Shire Schools Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Training Orchestra or Wind Orchestras.
  • £46 will fund a one term or £138 will fund a one-year bursary fee for a student to be a member of the Leicester-Shire Schools Junior Concert Band, Strictly String Ensemble, Steel Pan Ensemble, Big Band, Junior and Senior Percussion Ensembles, Flute Choir or String Sinfonia.
  • The maintenance, servicing and replacement of instruments and music stands can be expensive; a donation of £75 could go towards this programme.
  • There are also opportunities with some of our concerts to sponsor the whole event at a donation of £2,000. This will feature your name as the Concert title and you will be featured in the programme.
  • You could sponsor a specific Instrumental chair within one of our ensembles; Sponsorship of chairs will be £100 per year.
  • £50 will pay for a one-term transport bursary and £150 will pay for a one-year transport bursary.

Want to know more about the Ensembles that the charity help support?

Please visit our Ensembles Page on the Leicester-Shire Music Education Hub website, where you can find out about the groups supported by the charity.

How much does it cost to run our Ensembles?

Being a member of the Leicester-Shire Schools Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Training Orchestra or Wind Orchestra incurs a subscription fee of £85 per term, whilst all our other ensembles are charged at £46 per term. We also run a transport network from various points around the city and county to help students attend Saturday morning rehearsals. There is a £50 termly charge for using the transport. Full fee remission is available for all students whose families are in receipt of qualifying benefits. Please see our Ensembles page for further details. We anticipate that the running costs for the Ensembles in the academic year 2017/18 will be around £140,000.

This consists of:

Transport costs - £35,000
Room hire - £20,000
Resources - £4,000
Conductors, sectional coaches and staffing - £77,000

Even when Subscription fees are taken into account, there is still around £46,000 needed in order to run the Central Ensembles.


We are currently updating our processes and as a consequence re-writing some of these documents. If the document you are interested in is not currently available, please let us know and we can send you the information as soon as it is published.

For more details or to find out how to be a Patron, Trustee, Volunteer or Donor, Please email us at leicsmct@gmail.com

Thank you so much for your support.

Mike Griffiths, Asha Bishop, Annie Bannister, Phil Iley and Mike Staunton.
Trustees