MfA Events & News
Dawsons Music and Music for All support the Children’s Trust
A cheeky plea on Twitter asking if anyone had a saxophone they could donate to help the children and young people with multiple disabilities and complex health needs the charity works with, led to Dawsons Sales Director, Gary Bond, and Paul McManus, Chief Executive of Music for All, paying a special visit to donate a beautiful, gleaming, brand new saxophone and also meet the young lady who inspired the ‘tweet’. Catherine, currently receiving brain injury rehabilitation at the Trust, is starting to re-learn the clarinet as part of her multidisciplinary therapy programme, and aspires to play the saxophone. The only problem was the Trust didn’t have one.
Commenting on the donation Gary Bond said: “Why wouldn’t we want to support The Children’s Trust? I can’t think of a more worthy cause. It has been very humbling to visit and I’d like us to do more in the future.”
Claire Wood, said: “We can’t thank Dawsons enough for their kind donation. From the look on Catherine’s face when she was presented the saxophone on behalf of the Trust, you can see the difference that it will make.”
The Children’s Trust is a national charity, which provides care, education and therapy for children with multiple disabilities and complex health needs, and rehabilitation to children with an acquired brain injury. For more information, visit: www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk
MfA and Peavey help London charity
We are delighted to have been able to donate a Peavey p.a. system to The Lorrimore Mental Health Resource Centre in Kennington. The Centre is part of the Southside Partnership. The equipment will be a big help to their “More Than Music” programme. This allows service users (many of whom are musicians), to put on performances of music and to help with recording a cd.
Auction of music memorabilia to raise funds for MfA!
There will be a Silent Auction of a range of signed music memorabilia on the 30th November at the MIA Music Awards in London this Year, with the proceeds going to Music for All.
Learn to Play Day at Musician's Union in London
This was a great success! Lessons were offered to the general public on flute, violin, guitar, trumpet and clarinet. A wonderful group of music teachers helped on the day with great support from Lambeth Music Service...lots of new musicians made on the day!
Music for All visited St Clement Danes Primary School in the heart of theatre-land, London.
Working with industry partners Yamaha and Sax.Co.uk and the local Music Service, the pupils were given taster lessons on saxophone, clarinet and flute. Parents of the children joined the event and were given demonstrations by both the teachers and the pupils!
Music for All and AbcMH Music Learn to Play event in Market Harborough!
As part of Music for All’s drive to directly support our music shops, it has just piloted a new format in a town centre.
Working with Matt and his team from AbcMH Music, Market Harborough we:
1. Arranged to take over the town Theatre for the day and to offer Learn to Play taster lessons for free to the general public.
2.
Guitars (acoustic and electric), drums, flutes, saxophones, clarinets were all available.
3.
We had amazing product and personnel support from Peavey, Fender, Worldwind, Music Force and Soar Valley.
4.
Matt arranged for major advance publicity (local press, radio, posters etc).
5.
We also had the support of the local samba band who played out side and drew people into the Theatre.
6.
Lessons were given to over 100 local people, many of whom were either new or lapsed musicians.
Visit of two Schools in Enfield
Music for All has recently completed a visit of two Schools in Enfield (Brettenham and Fleecefield). The charity offered Keyboard, Guitar, Violin and Flute “taster” lessons to about 300 children. The visits aim to encourage the children to take up musical instrument lessons.
Information was given to children and staff about the benefits of music-making as well as guidance on buying a quality instrument.
The Manager of Enfield Arts Support Service had this to say about the visit:
“Our recent Learn to Play Day at two Edmonton Primary Schools was fantastic. 120 children in Year 4 all got the chance to try out flute, violin, guitar and keyboard in small groups in noisy but productive sessions. Most of children had never heard these instruments before and in trying each instrument in turn they all left the session knowing exactly which instrument they wanted to learn. A great format that worked particularly well in helping us reach our most disadvantaged children.”
Gloucester tour – 1000 children taught to play in 3 days!
Music for All has just completed a tour of Forest of Dean Primary Schools. The charity visited 6 primary schools and offered brass “taster” lessons to all the children. The event was designed to get the children playing and to encourage them to join their local community brass bands. The charity was able to do this with the support of a NAMM Foundation Grant and the industry resources of Jupiter, Windcraft and Dennis Wick. The local Music Service was actively involved in the teaching at all the schools as well as local band leaders. Special thanks go to Steve Legge for his inspirational teaching style! Information was given to children and parents about the benefits of music-making as well as guidance on buying a quality instrument. The charity also offered instrument bursaries to children who were not in a position to be able to afford lessons. See us on facebook more photos coming soon.
Three Men on a bike raise over £15,000 for Music for All!
The riders had an amazing week on their 450 mile trek and stopped at major Music Shops Absolute Music, Nevada Music and Bonners Music en route where they were greeted by the public before an evening event in each shop. The charity would like to extend a major “thankyou” to the Roland riders (and all their supporters) who made the project such a major success.
Music for All supports Oasis Academy in Croydon
The final stage of the “Three men on a bike” ride saw the riders cycling into the Academy in Croydon to make a special presentation to the children. Music for All gave a substantial donation to the school to allow them to buy a whole range of new instruments. This was all made possible by the magnificent fund-raising efforts of the bike ride. The school was also treated to a fantastic musical demonstration by the Roland Band.
Learn to Play at John Madejski Academy
Music for All spent the day at the Reading Academy and introduced all the children in Year7 and 8 to drums, guitars, flutes and trumpets. The staff fromlocal shops Hickies,Drumwright and Dawkes all very kindly supported the day. The charity was also able to offer a talented pupil a bursary of lessons to support his musical development.
We went back to Eastbrook School and received more press coverage
Back to Eastbrook Primary
On 10th September, we went back to Eastbrook Primary School to see how the 10 children had been getting on with the violins that MfA and Stentor had donated last Christmas. We were delighted with the progress and were able to donate 4 clarinets to the children to help get them started on wind instruments.
Our visit to Eastbrook School with Stentor in the press
Music for All visits Essex School
On July 13th, the charity visited St Mary’s Primary School in Burnham on Crouch. With industry partner, Rosetti, all the children were given free taster lessons on a range of instruments. The parents of the children came in the afternoon to see and hear what the children had been up to. One lucky child called Niamh was given a bursary for free guitar lessons and Rosetti kindly donated a guitar. This is the first of our new school visits that have been created with the grant from the Namm Foundation.
Music for All Schools Tour 2011
Great news, the charity has received another grant from The Namm Foundation in USA! This has enabled us to visit a whole range of schools during the year with our free “Learn to Play” lessons. www.nammfoundation.org
Music for All and Stentor support Eastbrook Primary School
The charity was approached by the school that had a number of young pupils expressing an interest in learning the violin. The school and children, unfortunately, did not have the funds to make this happen. Music for All and Stentor Music were able to donate some instruments to make this happen!
April Tour of London Primary Schools
Music for All visited 4 primary schools in the Croydon area and give free “taster” lessons to 300 children and performances to over 500. The children were given the chance to try guitars, drums, violins, flutes, brass and keyboards. Many had never even held these instruments before and we were delighted to be able to inspire a whole new group of children to want to learn to play. The tour was kindly supported by Korg, Stentor and Music Force Distribution. More tours to follow!
‘I was very impressed with the level of organisation and care from your charity. All of the children had a fantastic experience, many of them playing instruments they had never touched before, let alone play! Your understanding of all instruments allowed the children to play with confidence, being unafraid to make mistakes, something that we try to instill in the children. I really hope that we can experience the charity again as it was an excellent afternoon of experimental music which the children cannot stop talking about! Many Thanks’, Joanne Simmons
Creative Arts Co-ordinator West Thornton School
‘It was great’ - Ucheora
‘I want to learn how to play the flute now’ - Angelina
‘I thought it was brilliant and they can all play well’ - Ryan
‘It was really good I liked the synthesizer the best’ - Daniel
‘It has inspired me to learn the trumpet’ - Jack
‘It made me feel like playing an instrument’ - Keeley
'It was lots of fun!' - Lorenz
'I really enjoyed playing the trumpet, although I kept putting it in my mouth' - Akshay
'My favourite instrument was the drums, I think they have a brilliant sound' - Kevin
'I have never played a violin before, it was scary at first but then I was really happy with the sound I made' - Nadine
‘Thank you so much for coming into school and inspiring both the staff and children. You were all so friendly, fun and professional with how you interacted with the children. At morning break time the children were talking about the fantastic assembly you did. Thank you so much for lifting the school. Today in my mind was how a happy school should be.’ Sonia Mukerji (Deputy Head Teacher)
“The charity recently supported “Noel Edmonds Big Band” Sky TV promotion that launched an instrument amnesty to find instruments for needs schools in London. This was a great initiative and Music for All were proud to be a partner”
Swindon Music Open Day
Music for All offered support at the recent Music open day, which gave hundreds of people from the area, the chance to try a musical instrument. The day was a great success and definitely created some new music makers!
