Music & Drama Education Awards 2021
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Announced in an online ceremony on 24 March hosted by Alexander Armstrong and sponsored by Classic FM, the ISM, the MU and the MTA, the awards recognised outstanding achievement in music and drama education over an extremely challenging year.
The Music & Drama Education Awards 2021 also recognised the lifetime contribution of the much-loved flautist, teacher, writer and broadcaster Atarah Ben-Tovim.
In a rare development, two initiatives were recognised as winners in the Outstanding Musical Initiative category – the Dads Rock Academy, which the judges described as ‘a really imaginative initiative addressing a societal need through music provision and bringing together generations’, and The London Music Fund, which was described as ‘an enterprise that has supported hundreds of students to fulfil their musical potential, irrespective of their background, in addition to a rich programme of partnerships and patronage in the capital’.
Because of the unprecedented circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic, a new award category was created this year, the Goldstars Award, which recognised UK teachers who have shown particular compassion, flair and creativity during the pandemic. It was won by Services for Education deputy head of service Charlotte Buxton, described by the judges as ‘a person who has formidable impact and reach, with a remarkable ambition and vision, who has made an amazing achievement in challenging times.’
Here are the winners in full:
- Outstanding Musical Initiative: Dads Rock Academy and The London Music Fund
- Outstanding Drama Initiative: Platform by Tonic Theatre and Nick Hern Books
- Outstanding Music Education Resource: Services for Education Online Learning Resource
- Outstanding Drama Education Resource: A Beginner’s Guide to Devising theatre by Tashi Gore and Jess Thorpe, Published by Methuen Drama
- Excellence in SEND (Music & Drama): Reach oRchestRa
- Excellence in Musical Theatre: A Place for Us CIC for West Side Story – I Wish it Was Yesterday
- Excellence in Primary/Early Years: RSF for The RSF Primary Schools Rock & Pop Music Workshop Programme
- Outstanding School Drama or Music Department: Isaac Newton Academy Music Department
- Francesca Hanley Inspiration Award: Shaheen Chino Khan, founder of The Bollywood Academy
- Drama Inspiration Award: Aine Lark
- #Goldstars Award: Charlotte Buxton
- Music Teacher Magazine Editor’s Award: Walter S Reiter for The Baroque Violin & Viola: a Fifty-Lesson Course
- Drama & Theatre Magazine Editor’s Award: Theatre Peckham
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE
The ceremony, which is available to watch below, also features performances from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the National Youth Theatre and Dancing Folk.