UK’s Oldest Music Service Reaches Out To Alumni To Help Future Generations Make Music

The UK’s oldest music service behind the careers of many leading musicians is launching an alumni network as it seeks to preserve music education for future generations.

Set up in 1948, Leicestershire Music has shaped the lives of around 250,000 young people through whole-class teaching, massed singing, bands, orchestras and instrument lessons.

The launch of the alumni network is part of a drive to help make the music service sustainable with the chance for past members to ‘pay back’ in the form of masterclasses, workshops, volunteering and inspiration to the next generation.

With the central government funding staying frozen since 2015 and rising costs, the service - along with all music hubs across the UK - is finding it harder to offer excellent music education to all children and young people. A recent report identified a budget shortfall of £161 million for music education.

More than 18,000 young people engage with its programmes each year. During 1960s and 70s, the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) was arguably the most famous youth orchestra in the world, regularly embarking on foreign tours, performing all over the country including the Royal Albert Hall, recording LPs, appearing on television and collaborating with top conductors and composers including André Previn and Sir Michael Tippett.

Tours were an important and historic part of the service. This year, the youth orchestra went on tour for the first time again in many years but not all students can afford to take up the opportunities. Leicestershire Music is striving to remove financial barriers to ensure those life-changing experiences can be made available to every young person once again.

Alumni Jonathan Vaughan, now Principal of Guildhall School of Music and Drama, said: “I owe my entire career to Leicestershire’s music service. From the age of nine, I spent every Saturday immersed in music, working my way up through the orchestras alongside children from all backgrounds. No one told us music was only for the elite – we simply delighted in our love for it.

“The friendships I made then still endure, and many of my peers now hold principal seats in orchestras around the world. That training ultimately led me to become a member of the London Symphony Orchestra – from the LSSO to the LSO!”

It comes as the latest economic report from the industry body UK Music revealed the UK’s music industry contributes a record £8 billion to the UK economy. Now, with the national curriculum review recommending the scrapping of the EBacc, it is hoped that there will be a rise in students taking up GCSE Music and more students considering music industry jobs as a career.

The music service has a new permanent home in the much-loved Haymarket Theatre in Leicester city centre, the previously empty theatre where it held performances in the past. The venue now serves as the service's physical base for bands and orchestra rehearsals, and is set to host a public performance early next year.

Sarah Barton-Wales, Head of Leicestershire Music, said: “Having the Haymarket as our new home really helps to raise the profile of Leicestershire Music – you can hear music being made as you walk past on the street and we hope to welcome new families and young people into the space to see what we do and how they can get involved.

“It is also a special building to so many in the city who remember enjoying musicals and plays here when it was a working theatre. With the biggest stage in the UK, it also offers us a great performance space and is aspirational for students.”

The new alumni network is now live on the Leicestershire Music website, where Alumni can sign up to reconnect, share memories and photos, and find out more about supporting the service.

An Alumni newsletter is set to be launched along with opportunities to contribute to  ‘Give a Child the Gift of Music’ by funding the cost of a child’s instrument hire, lessons or their membership of choirs, bands and orchestras. Contributions help young musicians access music education, opening doors to creativity and confidence—opportunities that often leave a lifelong impact, just as early musical experiences have profoundly shaped many lives.

To find out more about Leicestershire Music, make a contribution or sign up to the new alumni network, go to www.leicestershiremusichub.org