Ealing receives funding boost to music service
Published 29 May 2012
Ealing Council’s music service has been awarded nearly £1million from Arts Council England to improve and expand music education in the borough.
Ealing Music Service works closely with schools and other organisations across the borough to provide high quality, affordable music lessons and activities. It also runs several borough-wide ensembles that are open to young people in the community and currently teaches more than 6000 pupils.
One of the service's strengths is the diversity of the music that it teaches, with tuition taking place in instruments as diverse as the Japanese drum, the taiko, and the Indonesian percussion ensemble, the gamelan. This diversity is celebrated through the staging of the annual World Music Festival.
The Arts Council England funding will allow the service to work more effectively with all of these organisations through a new Ealing Music Partnership. The partnership will extend and improve music education, reaching more young people, while keeping prices low and standards high.
It will also invest in increasing the number and range of ensembles, choirs and vocal groups available for young people. And the money will be used to better support students as they take their first musical steps at nursery and in reception classes and as the most talented young musicians take their study forward to university.
Several new music programmes and events have already been launched. The first, the Ealing Youth Prom, will take place next month and will showcase performances from some of Ealing’s best young musicians. And Mini Melodies is a new music programme specially tailored for the youngest students in primary schools.
Councillor Patricia Walker, cabinet member for Children and Young People, said: “There are so many advantages to a music education. Not only is it a wonderful outlet for creativity and self-expression, it also improves children’s self-confidence, problem solving skills and discipline.
“We want as many of our young people as possible to have access to music on a regular basis, which is why I am delighted that our excellent Ealing Music Service has secured this funding. I hope that as many young people as possible take advantage of the opportunities that it will create.”
To find out more about the Ealing Music Service, go to www.egfl.org.uk/music, email ealingmusicservice@ealing.gov.uk or call 020 8843 9121.