Every Child, Every Community: Dávur’s Story Posted Wed 12 November 2025
Growing up, my life was shaped by our local youth bands and music lessons more than you can imagine. Only a few of us became professional musicians, but all of us depended on the space this activity gave us to grow in. I had many experiences, both long lasting and fleeting, which affected me profoundly, because my heroes and role models were in the room there with me rather than in my dreams or on a screen. It was so inspiring and encouraging to feel like you were in the middle of something, rather than on the sidelines. Music gave me confidence to deal with complicated challenges across many aspects of life.
Now that I am a parent myself, it is one of the things I think about most. How am I going to make sure that my boys are afforded the same opportunity? I am very aware that I can’t give them all of this on my own, but depend on a society rich in opportunities, experiences, open doors and welcoming faces. Something which I was fortunate to have, and which absolutely didn’t happen as easily as I took for granted back then.
As a musician in the RSNO, I have the opportunity to give just a little bit of this back to society, and in fact I see it as one of my main responsibilities. I always relish the opportunity to come off the concert stage and to work with people directly through the many education programmes our engagement department delivers.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to our Every Child, Every Community campaign so far. Your support is invaluable in making our education programmes possible. I am honestly amazed by the huge and immediate response we have had, and relieved that it seems the society I live in really does value music education.
Dávur Juul Magnussen
Principal Trombone RSNO
Every Child, Every Community
Find out how you can help make sure music is a shared experience for every child in every community in Scotland.