Since our humble beginnings, we’ve had a big journey… 

Our founders Abby Skye, Wayne Ficnerski and Andrew Gifford met in early 2024, where a discussion about giving something back to the amazing Bundaberg community quickly grew into the launch of the Next Level High School Talent Competition, which was held later that year and again in 2025. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the youth, they started planning their next steps..

However, in October 2024, one of our young Talent Comp winners, a talented and truly beautiful 14-year-old girl Isla Marschke took her own life, which hit the team hard, and they started seeing the potential and importance of the program in a different light. With a new, bittersweet passion and purpose, the team created and held the first Youth Jam in December 2024, which was attended with great enthusiasm.

Since then, Next Level Music Programs has held over a dozen Youth Jams, 2 Youth Gigs (paid opportunities), skill development Workshops and become a reputable body for youth support and advocacy.  In the 12 months that followed, our CEO Abby Skye was honoured with a Rotary International Fellowship for her work with the youth and in January 2026, Next Level took out the Australia Day Award for Community Group of the Year.

The rapid growth, recognition and success of Next Level is unmistakably attributable to the tremendous community support, enthusiasm from the talented youth of the region and the unwavering commitment from the team, and serves as further inspiration to go even further in 2026.

While obviously continuing with their regular Youth Jams and Gigs for the musically minded youth, Next Level are developing Youth Focus – a revolutionary new youth mentoring and accelerated self-development program, as well as exploring expansion of their music events to other regions.