Four new In Harmony projects revealed
16 July 2012
The Department for Education (DfE) and Arts Council England (ACE) have released details of four new In Harmony projects, the result of a government call, in last year’s National Plan for Music, for the In Harmony programme to be extended.
The new projects will be based in Gateshead, Leeds, Nottingham and Telford. They will be run by The Sage Gateshead, Opera North, Nottingham City Council and Telford & Wrekin Music Service. Each will be funded from September 2012 until March 2015, in line with renewed funding for the existing In Harmony projects in Lambeth and Liverpool. The third of the original In Harmony projects, In Harmony Norwich, has not had its funding renewed.
The DfE will invest a total of £500,000 per project between 2012 and 2015. This will be matched by ACE, which will also take a central coordinating and development role. The projects will receive £250,000 for 2012-13, £150,000 for 2013-14 and £100,000 for 2014-15.
In Harmony aims to use orchestral music-making to bring positive change to the lives of children and their communities in disadvantaged areas, based on methods developed over 35 years by Venezuela’s El Sistema programme. ‘I am confident that the organisations that we have selected will embrace the spirit of El Sistema and will work tirelessly to bring positive change to the children and their communities,’ said Julian Lloyd Webber, founder of the In Harmony programme and chairman of In Harmony Sistema England.
A statement from ACE said: ‘All six In Harmony projects will be encouraged to be entrepreneurial and to inspire other investment to help secure a sustainable longer-term future. They will operate within a national evaluation framework to ensure they provide evidence demonstrating how the In Harmony approach can transform the lives of children and their families in areas of deprivation.’
