Music in schools initiative gets further ACE funding

An initiative to perform live classical music shows in school playgrounds will tour schools and venues nationwide this year after being given further funding by Arts Council England (ACE). 

Inspired by the BBC's Promenade Concerts, Playground Proms were initially developed by comedy string quartet Graffiti Classics in 2021 as a way to perform during COVID social distancing restrictions. They began as a collaboration with Cumbria Music Hub and toured across the county.

The charity said the latest grant from ACE, the third it has now received, will enable the project to be rolled out to even more schools later this year in collaboration with music hubs in Cumbria, East Riding, Lancashire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Portsmouth and York, as well as a pilot project in Kent.

Cathal Ó Dúill from Playground Proms said, “We are so pleased to be able to take Playground Proms to even more school children in 2024 and are very grateful to Arts Council England for their support.

"We believe classical music can be enjoyed by everyone, and the response to our schools’ workshops and performances in the local communities shows this. 

"Some children we perform with may have never heard any live classical music before our visit, and we believe passionately in the transformative nature of live music in all children’s lives. 

"All our audiences really enjoy the music being presented in a new and fresh way, and we hope this can go some way to show there is interest from the public and classical music should be invested in."