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General Manager

Vacancy

Job Description

The National Youth Jazz Collective (NYJC) supports the creative and educational needs of the young jazz musician, focusing on small group composition and improvisation within a pathway of progression from beginners to young professionals. Our mission is to:

  • bring young jazz enthusiasts together to develop their skills, passion and experience as jazz players
  • offer music education for 8–18-year-olds helping them improvise, compose, arrange and lead their own bands.
  • provide teaching and learning materials for music teachers and schools to encourage and support young musicians to collectively improvise and compose.

NYJC was founded in 2007 and is led by Founding Artistic Director, multi award-winning composer, educator and record producer, Issie Barratt, cited in Radio 4’s 2018 power list as one of the 40 most influential women in the music industry. Issie is supported by an experienced Programme Manager and Finance Manager, 75 internationally renowned teaching artists (11% of whom are NYJC alumni) and a knowledgeable and skilled Board of Trustees. NYJC’s President is jazz luminary, Dave Holland, and Vice Presidents include composer Sir Karl Jenkins, jazz pianist Julian Joseph OBE and Norma Winstone MBE. NYJC is a Charity, Company and National Portfolio Organisation, receiving regular core funding from Arts Council England and the Department for Education, with additional project support from various Trusts and Foundations.

The National Youth Jazz Collective Summer School is the country’s pinnacle pre-degree jazz education opportunity for 14–18-year-olds. 90% of our summer school participants go on to study jazz at conservatoire before becoming leading lights on the jazz scene. Five of the ten semi-finalists and two of the five finalists of this year’s BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award are NYJC Summer School graduates. Many have gone on to win Grammys, Parliamentary and JazzFM Jazz Awards and Paul Hamlyn and Ivor Novello composer awards – several of whom were in receipt of bursaries while with NYJC. All acknowledge NYJC as the significant experience that encouraged them to progress to higher education jazz studies and commit to becoming professional musicians.

2022 will mark NYJC’s 15th birthday. In our first 15 years we have focused on piloting and developing a successful artistic programme, creating an award-winning pedagogy and effective progression route, supported by a range of online teaching and learning materials and a thriving alumni network that includes many of the leading figures in UK jazz.

It is now time for us to focus on growing our management team to support our organisational development and build on our growing family of alumni to ensure NYJC can continue to support talented young musicians across England.

We want our organisation to be efficient and effective, enabling us to match the high-quality artistic programme we’re know and celebrated for. As such, we are looking for a General Manager to join our core team (Executive Artistic Director, Finance Manager, Programme Manager & Website Manager) to support with the smooth running of our wonderful organisation.

Job Outline

Title: General Manager
Hours: 16 hours per week (flexible working hours can be agreed)
Location: Kings Place, London (currently remotely)
Reports to: Executive Artistic Director
Salary: £40,000 (pro rata based on 2 days / week)
Benefits: 20 days of holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata), access to workplace pension scheme

Responsibilities

Governance and HR

  • Refine and develop NYJC’s policies and procedures, ensuring the organisation responds to changing statutory requirements and any changes are implemented effectively
  • Develop and manage NYJC’s risk register in partnership with the Board of Trustees and support the Programme Manager to ensure all activities are appropriately risk assessed
  • Manage the operations of the Board of Trustees and Development Board, supporting with the preparation of papers, taking minutes and supporting where necessary with board recruitment
  • Manage the recruitment process for core team members
  • Act as Data Protection Officer, ensure compliance with statutory data protection requirements and update the data protection policy and procedures where necessary

Finance (in partnership with the Finance Manager)

  • Support the team to ensure effective financial management of the organisation in line with agreed financial processes
  • Maintain accurate records of donor information for NYJC’s Development Board.

Fundraising (in partnership with the Executive Artistic Director)

  • Support with the preparation of key funding applications, including drafting applications
  • Support with the writing of NYJC’s next National Portfolio Organisation application
  • Maintain and monitor the Fundraising Plan to track application and reporting deadlines
  • Coordinate the preparation of financial information for funding applications and reports
  • Coordinate stewardship of individual donors

Monitoring and Evaluation

  • Support the Programme Manager to collect and analyse monitoring and impact data
  • Support the Executive Artistic Director with preparation of regular Arts Council England and Department for Education data returns
  • Produce impact data to support fundraising applications and marketing activity

Strategy

  • Support the Executive Artistic Director with the development of a new organisational strategy, including contributions to team away days and five-year sustainability plan 2022-2027
  • Support the Executive Artistic Director on discrete research projects, e.g. competitor analysis

Person Specification

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that reflects the diversity of the young musicians we support. We encourage applications from those currently underrepresented within the jazz education sector’s management teams, in particular Black, Asian and ethnically diverse candidates, disabled candidates and candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Essential

  • Experience working within a small arts organisation in an operations or administrative role
  • Excellent written communication skills
  • Excellent attention to detail
  • Experience of policy development and management
  • Experience of risk management
  • Experience of working independently and managing varied workloads
  • Understanding of the charity and the arts sector

Desirable

  • Experience of working within the music education sector in an administrative role
  • An interest in bringing jazz to more young people and their music leaders across the UK
    Application Process
Submit a CV & one-page cover letter to our Executive Artistic Director Issie Barratt at issie@nyjc.co.uk.
Deadline:
4pm 27th April 2021
Email from NYJC to all applicants:
5pm 28th April
Interviews:
Round 1: 10am-5pm 4th May 2021 / Round 2: 12th May
Start date:
14 June 2021

Should you have any questions about the role or NYJC more generally, please contact our Executive Artistic Director on issie@nyjc.co.uk in advance of the deadline (NYJC will be on leave 1st-15th April).