Here’s your weekly summary of positive news about music and music education – and anything else that captured our attention.
- grants to support social impact could be used to provide “music sessions for young people not in education”
- UK music industry exports rose by 7% to a record £2.6 billion last year, and sector making record contribution to UK economy – but is dependent on access to education according to new report
- The ISM’s annual survey of teaching and accompanying rates is now open
- new survey aims to build picture of the place of composing and creative music-making within music education
- Department for Education to “test Universities’ appetite for adding music A-level to the facilitating subject range”
- new folk album features violin carved by First World War soldier
Grants or loans of up to £150,000 are to be made available (from April next year) through the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund to “creative organisations that provide a meaningful social impact in their local communities.” This could include using music sessions for young people not in education, according to Government publicity. Over £3 million in total is available; the funding will be distributed by Sheffield-based social enterprise Key Fund.
The social investment fund will run for two years from April 2019 and is open to non-profit creative, arts and cultural organisations. It will cover Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Humber, Lancashire, Leeds City Region, Liverpool City Region, North East, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley, York and North Yorkshire and East Riding.
The UK music industry grew by 2% in 2017 to contribute a record £4.5 billion to the economy – up by £100 million on 2016, according to a new report, Measuring Music 2018, published by UK Music last week.
The report highlights the scale of the industry’s contribution to the economy. It also showed that export revenues of British music grew by 7 per cent to a new high of £2.6bn, and music industry jobs rose by 3% to a new high of 145,815 people.
But the report recognises challenges ahead, most notably music education:
“If we want to keep producing world-leading stars in every field, we need to open up opportunities to music so that they are available to people of all backgrounds.”
Investment in music education is of the utmost importance according to the report which highlights how only 15% of children at state schools receive sustained music tuition. The report also calls on Government to commit to a new National Plan for Music Education. You can read the report in full here.
The ISM’s annual survey of teaching and accompanying rates is now available online.
The ISM say “the more musicians who complete the survey, the more authoritative the results will be as an indicator of what musicians have been charging,” so do take part.
This year’s survey focuses on fees paid to private teachers; fees paid to part-time instrumental and singing teachers in schools; and fees paid for accompanying work. It will take less than 10 minutes to complete and closes on 30 November.
Sound and Music, the national charity for new music, wants to build a robust national picture of the place of composing and creative music-making within music education.
Within its new survey, the charity wants to hear from anyone who is involved in teaching music or using music to work with children and young people:
“Whether you are a teacher in a secondary school, a musician working in a youth club with young singer-songwriters, part of a hub or organisation supporting music-making, or working in a nursery encouraging toddlers to get noisy – we want to know more about what you’re doing, how you are being supported and how you see the role of creative music-making today.”
The Department for Education is to write to “some” universities to “test their appetite for adding music A-level to the facilitating subject range,” according to a statement by Lord Agnew of Oulton during a Lords Chamber debate.
Baroness Massey of Darwen proposed a Motion to Take Note, “That this House takes note of initiatives in early intervention in children’s lives that would improve the welfare, life chances and social mobility of young people in the United Kingdom.” The motion was passed. You can read the debate in full via Hansard, here.
A new folk music album, The Unfinished Violin by Sam Sweeney, features music played on a violin originally carved by a World War One soldier, then restored and completed nearly a hundred years later. The album includes songs popular around 1914-18. Read more about the album and the story behind the violin on Sam Sweeney’s website here or in The Strad.
What next?
- Read earlier editions of Good Music News.
- If there’s something you would like us to cover in Good Music News Friday, 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.