5 new Music Hubs join Furthering Talent

Posted 6 years ago

Following a highly competitive application process, we’re thrilled to be welcoming five new Music Education Hubs partners to our Furthering Talent programme. Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch (SoundStorm), Lewisham, Liverpool (Resonate), Sunderland and Worcestershire will all begin programme delivery within the next 12 months, taking our total number of partners up to 15 Hubs.

Furthering Talent aims to effect sector-wide change in approaches to identifying and supporting the musical learning of young people living in challenging circumstances, giving them greater agency in their music-making. Participants who would otherwise have to stop their  instrumental learning receive funding and a range of other support.

I don’t think I quite realised his level of ability… I can’t thank you guys enough for looking out for him and for recognising what he might become – it means everything!
Mother of Andrew, a Furthering Talent student from Leicestershire.

We’re delighted to be welcoming five new Hub partners to the Furthering Talent family. We were overwhelmed by both the number and quality of applications we received, which made the decision-making process extremely difficult.

Each of our new partners strongly demonstrated the needs of local young people in their applications and had exciting ideas for aligning Furthering Talent with their existing work. It’s an extremely exciting time for the programme with each of our 15 partner Hubs presenting diverse demographics and challenges.

Neil Phillips: Furthering Talent programme manager

We are delighted to join the Furthering Talent programme and become part of a national portfolio of Music Education Hubs working with Awards for Young Musicians to help more people across the UK reach their musical potential. Liverpool’s young people love making music, they love singing, playing and writing music which is why we at Resonate, Liverpool’s Music Hub are so thrilled to join this exciting national programme.

Resonate is committed to making music in the most disadvantaged communities in our city as we know what a difference access to brilliant music making opportunities can make in supporting young people to progress on their musical journey. This programme will allow us to reach more young people with music, unlock potential and offer targeted support where it is needed most.

We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the five new Music Hubs to join the Awards for Young Musicians Furthering Talent programme. The programme will enable us to support some of our most talented musicians to grow and develop their practice, who might otherwise not have the chance to continue their musical journey due to challenging circumstances in their lives. This is a wonderful opportunity for those musicians to overcome all barriers to music-making and achieve their aspirations and goals in their chosen field. We look forward to working with Awards for Young Musicians and our young people over the next two years.

Severn Arts is the lead organisation for Worcestershire’s Music Education Hub.

Lewisham Music is thrilled to be joining the next phase of AYM’s Furthering Talent programme. For a relatively small Hub in a deprived borough, this investment and partnership will be transformational, helping us create an equitable offer for all young people in Lewisham, especially for those from disadvantaged and BAME backgrounds. It will help us strengthen progression routes and ensure that our offer is as varied and diverse as the borough we serve. Furthering Talent will greatly help us develop our new community offer which we will be delivering from our new premises in Bellingham. And we will be able to work with colleagues across the country to strive to make music education accessible, inclusive and relevant. We can’t wait to get started!

SoundStorm and our partners in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Music Education Hub are absolutely thrilled to be part of the next round of Furthering Talent.

We’ve admired the programme from afar for some time now. To be part of it will make a huge difference to the lives of young people in our area showing talent for music through the Hub’s First Access programme, but who may have been prevented from taking this talent further in the past because of various barriers.

We look forward to working closely with the Furthering Talent team on making a difference to these young lives, plus developing other strategic initiatives off the back of the programme which should give it even greater impact. We also look forward to sharing ideas and knowledge with the other Hubs on the programme.

Here at Sunderland Music Hub we are delighted to be part of the Furthering Talent programme. Our aim is to make Sunderland the place where every child and young person has equitable choice, opportunity and access to music-making. Furthering Talent will allow us to make great leaps towards this aim, both through the programme of activity for young people and also through the support from Awards for Young Musicians will allowing us to make a shift change in the way we work as a Music Hub. We can’t wait to get started and see the huge impact this project will have for young musicians in our city.

Music Hubs in Bradford, Brighton, Greater Manchester, Hull, Leicestershire, Manchester, Nottinghamshire, The Music Partnership (North-West Midlands) and Wiltshire already deliver Furthering Talent, which was described as ‘overwhelmingly successful’ by music education expert Richard Hallam. The addition of the five new Hubs means that, with significant support from Youth Music, the programme will be helping over 500 young people across England by 2021.

The work has been made possible by funding from the National Lottery via Arts Council England.

AYM is a founding member of the Alliance for a Musically Inclusive England.

The Alliance for a musically inclusive England is a movement for change throughout music education. It is a growing network of organisations working together to:
* promote equity in music education
* support others to do the same through advocacy, CPD, resources, and strategic alliances.

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