ONE of Canberra’s longest-running community music organisations faces a bleak future after having been forced to make drastic changes in the aftermath of covid.

The Young Music Society was established in 1969 by Judith Clingan as a community organisation run by volunteers with family memberships, in order to offer the young people of Canberra an opportunity to discover their creativity in a fun and safe environment.

But the decision has been made to close the society’s office at the Flynn Community Hub, to pull back to a small primary-only Summer Music Program for one (January 9-13) and to operate from home offices indefinitely from February.

A skeleton staff of artistic director and general manager Stephen Leek and office administrator Charles Miller will continue to operate by email, website and Facebook, working indefinitely on a “needs only” basis for future projects and to keep the organisation afloat.

The YMS Concert Band will continue in 2023 only if it is financially viable to do so and fees are expected to rise to cover costs. 

Worst of all, the YMS Instrument Hire Program will close at the end of 2022. For more than 50 years the hire program has contributed to the lives of thousands of young musicians, but the society says most of the YMS instruments are old and “pre-loved”, and the on-going cost of repairs, maintenance or replacement has now become prohibitive. 

The commercial music environment in Canberra has also shifted so that there are now other alternate hire options available in every major music store and through many schools and through substantial government investment in this area. 

It was decided unanimously to sell off most of the instruments, which will be available for sale to the membership and the public at the YMS office 10am-to-4pm, January 14 and 21.

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