iMerc Latest News: Music organisations get £4.5M Youth Music funding

PRESS RELEASE

Youth Music gives £4.5m to help 108 organisations provide new music-making opportunities

Youth Music today announced plans to fund new music-making opportunities for children and young people with the release of over £4.5m in funding to 108 music organisations. This brings the total amount of grants given this year to £10.8m.

Youth Music is the leading UK charity supporting life-changing musical experiences and learning for children and young people. The £4.5m will be spent by music organisations helping young people with least opportunity to access music provision. These include young people at risk of exclusion, looked-after children, those coping with disability and young people living in urban deprivation or rural isolation.

Over the last year, Youth Music supported over 380 projects benefiting more than 110,000 young people and children – the highest number ever. This brings the total number helped by Youth Music to 2.5 million. Grants support music provision across all musical genres.

The grants announced today are for music projects varying from a community opera initiative by Garsington Opera to a project by Soft Touch Arts in deprived areas of Leicestershire reaching out to 11-19 year olds through hip-hop, grime and dance.

Over 125 children and young people from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are set to benefit from a £50,000 grant to Garsington Opera for their community opera project Road Rage that aims to support youth development and community cohesion through musical performance. Over six months, the project will bring together young participants from many walks of life to sing, train and perform alongside adults from their own communities, professional opera singers and a professional orchestra. The lasting impact that this project will have on participants, teachers and local schools will be profound, significantly improving the quality and standards of music delivery for children and young people in the region.

Karen Gillingham, Creative Director of Garsington Opera Education and the opera's Director says: "Garsington Opera is delighted that Youth Music has supported our community opera, 'Road Rage', putting work with young people and the community centre-stage. The opera will reach a huge number of children and young people, giving vocal and dramatic training, as well as an experience that will stay with them for a lifetime. Opera is a wonderfully engaging genre of music and I am thrilled that we can use it to inspire a new generation of young musicians."

At the other end of the musical spectrum, Soft Touch Arts aims to engage young people in deprived areas of Leicestershire using hip-hop, grime and dance music. The 160 young people between the ages of 11 to 19 benefiting will include some who have a background of offending, young people not in education or employment and looked-after children. Music leaders in the area say feedback from local police suggests that anti-social behaviour was less prevalent during the period previous Youth Music funded projects were underway.

Joe Cotton, Co-Director of Soft Touch Arts said: "Soft Touch Arts are very excited to start this strand of youth music work. It gives us the opportunity to begin working with some groups of young people that do not usually get the chance to participate in potentially life-changing opportunities like this. The funding will give us the chance to run a series of taster sessions in rural and city locations all over Leicestershire and in Leicester itself, targeting young people from a range of different back grounds. We will then run a regular weekly session at the Soft Touch Studios giving them opportunities to create music and perform at local showcase events and festivals."

Youth Music found there was significant interest in funding applications for its newly introduced "Excellence through Group Singing" module and gave grants totalling £595,965 to 13 organisations providing opportunities for young people to explore music through singing in group settings.

Matt Griffiths, Executive Director, Youth Music says: "At a time when money for music education is being really squeezed, it's great to see so many local charitable organisations still determined to provide high-quality music learning for local children and young people. We have aimed to ensure that money is directed to where it is most needed, particularly to those young people with least opportunity or facing significant challenges in the current climate."

A list of all the organisations awarded funding may be found at http://bit.ly/grants2013YM . Subscribers to Youth Music's online network, where more than 3,400 professionals share ideas, innovation and best practice in music education, can find the list on the network at http://bit.ly/YMgrants2013 .

ENDS

18^th March, 2013

For further press information please contact David O'Keeffe at Youth Music

david.o'keeffe@youthmusic.org.uk or call (020) 7902 1096 or 07977 067576. For information regarding Garsington Opera or Soft Touch Arts see contact details below

Notes to Editors

1. Youth Music is the leading UK charity using music to provide life-changing musical experiences and learning for children and young people, especially those with least opportunity. These include young people at risk of exclusion, children in care, those coping with disability and young people living in urban deprivation or rural isolation. We support and develop music provision at every stage of a young person's development, whether it's the first time a mother and baby make music together, a young person not in employment or training attending a DJing course or a talented teen's debut at the Royal Albert Hall.

2, Youth Music has transformed the landscape of musical opportunity in the UK. Since 1999, we've reached over 2.5 million children and young people across all musical genres; both in and out of school. Music has the power to build confidence, broaden horizons and raise aspirations. Our music programmes allow vulnerable young people to find their way, take charge of their lives and unlock their hidden potential.

3. Youth Music is supported by Arts Council England with lottery funding. In addition, the organisation raises funds through donations and gifts. More information on how to donate can be found at http://www.youthmusic.org.uk/Donate.html

4. For further information on the organisations mentioned, the contacts are as follows:

Garsington Opera:

Clare Adams, Press & PR:

e: clare@garsingtonopera.org

Tel: 01295 690344 / 07793 556103.

Soft Touch Arts Ltd:

Joe Cotton, Co-Director

e: joe@soft-touch.org.uk

Tel: 0116 270 2706

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David O'Keeffe

Media and PR Consultant