Tomorrow’s Warriors start Crowdfunder to maintain free access for young musicians

Tomorrow’s Warriors, the jazz education programme which has given free tuition and career support to more than 10,000 UK jazz musicians – Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Soweto Kinch and the Tomorrow’s Warriors Female Frontline (pictured) among them – has launched a crowdfunding campaign, I Am Warrior 2020, to keep its tuition free.

Janine Irons, the co-founder of Tomorrow’s Warriors, said the Covid-19 outbreak had forced it to cancel more than 100 concerts. She said she might have to start charging for the first time; adding that there was a danger that the burgeoning UK scene could become less diverse and interesting as a result.

“What makes the scene so exciting now, is that diversity. We’ve got Femi Koleoso and Ezra Collective, giving us the afrobeat. We’ve got Nubya Garcia doing the dub stuff. Shabaka Hutchings is doing all kinds of things,” she said. “It’s incredibly diverse music but to keep that you’ve got to make sure everyone’s coming to this party.”

Irons said Tomorrow’s Warriors got around 30% of its funding from the Arts Council, but that it was increasingly dependent on trusts and donations because its live gig programme had been stopped due to the Covid-19 crisis. She said she hoped to raise £100,000 in order to keep access free and ensure children and young people from low-income backgrounds can participate in its online workshops and educational programme.

Irons said reaching the fundraising goal would mean that Tomorrow’s Warriors could keep training another group of British jazz musicians. She said: “We can’t do nothing. Those young people still need to keep practising, they need to keep learning so that when we do eventually emerge from this, we are actually still going to have some young musicians who are in training and developing.”

Contribute to I Am Warrior 2020 here: www.gofundme.com/f/iamwarrior2020