Music for Education & Wellbeing

Steph Dickinson, of Pie Factory Music, an East-Kent creative youth charity, shares how they’re continuing to provide services and support to young people during lockdown.

Emma Coulthard, of Cardiff County and the Vale of Glamorgan Music Service , shares how they’re continuing to provide services and support to young people during lockdown.

Neil Phillips, of Awards for Young Musicians, shares how they’re continuing to provide funding and support to young people and those who teach and mentor them, during lockdown.

Helen Murray, of Nottingham Music Hub, shares how they’re continuing to provide support and services to young people during lockdown.

Ben O’Sullivan of The Music Works, a Gloucestershire-based community music charity shares how they’re continuing to provide support and services to young people during lockdown.

In this episode, I’m talking with Bev Foster, Founding Director of Room 217, a Canadian social enterprise that uses music to change the culture of care || Bev started the organisation with her husband Rob, after experiencing first-hand the power of music for her dying father || It now provides music training for care staff as well as research-informed products like conversation cards, music books, and CDs, so that music can become an integral part of the day-to-day life of the home.

In this episode, I’m talking with Elle Williams, a classically-trained guitarist who previously worked as a music tutor in mainstream schools, and now specialises solely in one-to-one music lessons with disabled people and those with additional needs || We talk about: the lack of music tutors working one-to-one with disabled people, particularly young people with moderate or profound and multiple disabilities; the tendency for provision in special needs schools to be music therapy or group music-making; and where tutors can find information and guidance to broaden their skills to reach more young people || Elle also shares three helpful tips for fellow music tutors.

In this episode, I’m talking with Paul McManus, CEO of the Music Industries Association (MIA), the trade body for the musical instrument industry. The MIA work in a number of ways to support music education for all ages, and recently in October 2019, held the first of what will now become an annual conference focused on music education and the music industry working together. The MIA also has a charitable arm called Music for All, which runs initiatives like the Learn to Play day and Make Music Day UK, and gives grants to encourage more people to make music.

In this episode, I’m talking with Jimmy Rotheram of Feversham Primary, Bradford. Jimmy is the teacher who was thrust into the spotlight to tell the story of how music contributed to transforming his school. He’s a great example of how one person with a mission and a story can get noticed and listened to - and can make a difference through music education advocacy.

In this episode, I’m talking with Ruth Jones, who is a youth arts specialist, trainer, music development manager and bass player, as well as being an experienced arts and music development manager currently working with Arts Awards and Wiltshire Music Connect || We discuss the value self-employed people bring to the sector and the challenges they face || Ruth shares some tips about being clear on your purpose, marketing yourself and earning money|| And we talk about what organisations can do to support this growing workforce