Two and a half years ago, Jen O’Brien and Felix Slavin launched Music Broth, with a vision to make musical instruments accessible to people across Scotland. They had eight instruments.
Now there are over 1400 items in their music instrument and equipment library in Glasgow. These include pianos, drumkits, amps, a clàrsach (harp) and a vast and diverse variety of other instruments and equipment.
Music Broth’s double bass has been played by a member (who is studying at the Junior Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) at Nicola Benedetti’s January workshop in the The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
Jen O’Brien tells me how Music Broth works in this new interview, and I was grinning all the way through it. Hope you will too.
She covers where the instruments have come from; how its hardship and access fund makes the instruments available; how it has adapted during lockdown and launched a no-contact instrument delivery service; and why it all began.
Jen also describes collaborations with Girls Rock Glasgow, Music Beyond All Borders, Zero Waste Scotland and more; why media coverage and exposure has been vitally important to Music Broth; and some of the inspirational people in the music scene in Glasgow and Scotland.
Here’s the interview podcast. Click the large arrow to play, or hover over the media player and click on the icon on the bottom right corner to download it. You can also access it in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, numerous other podcast apps or Spotify.
Music Broth itself is a wonderful social enterprise. It was fantastic to hear about Music Broth’s truly life changing impact, enabling so many people to experience the thrill and joy of making music. This new interview was first broadcast on 26 June on the radio show I present every Friday on Sheffield Live, itself a social enterprise.
Mentioned in the interview:
- Girls Rock Glasgow
- Moonstruck on Clydeside
- Music Beyond All Borders
- Moral Decay
- Mishwar
- Music Broth volunteer Jenny’s Junk Yard Drum Tutorial
What next?
- Music Broth
- More interviews here on the YMTS website.
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