Celebrating music and music education, showcasing great work: it’s Good Music News. We love sharing positive stories, new opportunities for musicians and music teachers, and innovative approaches. Here’s our latest Good Music News round-up.
- Applications for LPO Junior Artists, a free orchestral experience programme, now open
- Save Our Music campaign launched
- Short film showcases Convo, a two-year music project involving over one thousand school children
- Royal Albert Hall in a spin – or is it?
- Youth Music appoints four new ambassadors
- Auditions for paid performance opportunities with Live Music Now
- Music Mark: call for conference content
1. Applications for LPO Junior Artists 2019/20 are now open. LPO Junior Artists is a free orchestral experience programme for talented young musicians from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. The programme offers support, advice and professional insight to exceptional players of orchestral instruments, aged 15–19, and at a minimum Grade 8 playing standard. The deadline for applications is Friday 3 May 2019. More details here.
2. 20 young musicians who are alumni of the London Music Masters education charity have launched a campaign, #SaveOurMusic. Follow and read more about the campaign here. London Music Masters’s executive director, Rob Adediran, has written a great piece for The Strad with his 5 steps to save music for children and young people who, without the support of charities like London Music Masters, would “miss out on the transformative power that is unleashed when you create music with others.” Read Rob’s piece in The Strad.
3. The Royal Albert Hall has published an uplifting, positive, short (7 minute) documentary about Convo, a two-year music project involving over one thousand school children led by composer Charlotte Harding and conductor Ben Palmer, in partnership with the Royal College of Music. The project was designed to “embed best musical practice as an essential part of school life – giving invaluable musical opportunities to all pupils in the area irrespective of their background.”
Watch the film below and find out more about Convo here.
4. Incidentally we loved the Royal Albert Hall’s April Fool this year, an announcement claiming the Hall was to be rotated by 180 degrees.
5. Youth Music, the national charity which helps young people to change their own lives through music-making, has appointed four new ambassadors: presenter and multi-instrumentalist Myleene Klass, electronic music duo Bicep, folk musician and band leader Kathryn Tickell and award-winning musician and film composer Ollie Howell. Full details including comments from the new ambassadors here.
The appointments come in the charity’s 20th Anniversary year. Since Youth Music’s foundation in 1999, three million children and young people have made music across England in projects funded by Youth Music. We flagged Youth Music’s celebration of “20 years of life-changing music-making” in Good Music News on 12 January.
6. Live Music Now, which provides paid performance opportunities and training to work in a variety of community settings, is seeking to take on more musicians in the North West and West Midlands. Auditions will take place on 2 & 3 July in Manchester and 8 July in Birmingham and are open to musicians from any genre. More details.
7. Music Mark, the membership organisation, subject association and charity, is calling for content for its Annual Conference. The theme for this year’s conference is Partnership, Collaboration and Enterprise and it’s taking place from 21-22 November 2019 at the Cutlers Hall in Sheffield. Music Mark “lobbies for, and champions, a government supported, high quality, music education provision for all school aged children and young people which addresses diversity, equity and inclusion at its core.” The Call for Content is here.
What next?
- Read earlier editions of Good Music News
- If there’s something you would like us to cover in Good Music News, please email us.
- Here’s some good news for music teachers: our free 29 tips for a thriving music teaching business will give you things you can do immediately to boost your music teaching business. They’ll also make you smile.