We gratefully acknowledge the Bill Ashton Memorial Fund, created from a legacy gift by NYJO’s inspirational founder, Bill Ashton.
This fund supports the NYJO 60 Celebration Performance and has funded musician and trumpeter Olivia Cuttill, winner of the 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Award – The Martin Hummel Award*, to develop a new NYJO large-ensemble work inspired by Nina Simone’s Fodder on My Wings.
Bill Ashton’s legacy continues to guide and inspire the next generation of NYJO musicians. His contribution to UK music can hardly be overstated. In 1965, he founded what would become the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, an organisation that has since nurtured more than 1,500 alumni across the British musical landscape, released close to 50 albums and delivered nationwide learning programmes that have reached many thousands more young people.
For NYJO to continue speaking to Bill’s vision of a high-quality musical community, the organisation now combines its six-decade-old professional training ground for future leading musicians with an extensive and inclusive programme of learning and outreach, ensuring the UK jazz scene becomes ever more diverse, accessible and true to the spirit of the music. We hope that NYJO’s continued growth and flourishing amid a changing musical landscape stands as the finest tribute to Bill Ashton.
*a special award this year to commemorate the life and work of Martin Hummel the CEO of Ubuntu Music – The Martin Hummel Award – Olivia Cuttill (trumpet)