Music hubs struggle to fund children's lessons

Music students — Image caption,

Music hubs say they are struggling to provide opportunities to low income families

By Tamzin Kraftman

BBC News

Disadvantaged children could miss out on a music education, as music centres struggled to fund their free lessons.

Several music programmes in Yorkshire offered group lessons to students eligible for free school meals.

The scheme is funded through Arts Council grants, to give children from all backgrounds access to music lessons and instruments.

However, with rising numbers of eligible pupils, music hubs said they had struggled to support this service.

The Department for Education said that £76m was invested each year in music hubs across the country and was an "essential part of education" for young people.

It added that an extra £25m would be allocated to music hubs from September this year, to pay for new instruments.

However, the centres, which run on weekends and after school, said the investment had been largely unchanged from 2014 and had not risen in line with their increased costs.

Ralph playing the drums — Image caption,

Ralph, 15, said he would not have had the opportunity to play in ensembles if it was not for the centre in Harrogate

In Yorkshire alone, the percentage of students on free school meals had increased from 19.4% in 2019 to 26% in 2023, due to the cost of living crisis.

This meant that more children have become eligible for discounted and free music lessons, putting pressure on music centres to make their budgets go further.

The North Yorkshire Music Hub was one music service that had experienced this pressure.

Emily Jones, manager at the Harrogate Music Centre, said: "There are so many benefits that music brings these students, from social to cognitive and so much more.

"The thought of not being able to provide that is quite upsetting."

Ms Jones said that receiving funding was "brilliant" and helped the hubs to provide free instrument hire and group lessons to children.

Ingrid playing the saxophone — Image caption,

Ingrid hopes to be a music teacher one day and give her students the same opportunities she had

She added: "As the cost-of-living crisis continues and families are struggling more, we are finding that more are needing to access these remissions, which means our costs are going up."

Children at the centre also explained how their music education at Harrogate Music Centre had helped them.

Ralph, 15, played the drums and said there was the opportunity at the centre to play in ensembles, something he would "never do outside of school".

Ingrid, 16, said she did not think she would have got into music, if it was not for the support of the music centre.

"When I'm older I'm hoping to be a music teacher and if none of my students had an experience like this, I just don't think they would understand it," she said.

Many musicians today credit their start to subsidised music centres.

Vahan Salorian, a renowned composer and arranger, was now a music teacher for the Hackney Music Trust.

As a child, he was eligible for free music lessons through the North Yorkshire Music Service and said without that support being available, he would not have become a musician.

"When it became clear to my parents that music was something I wanted to pursue, the provision was always there to support it and have it funded," he said.

He said there were access issues with the expense of instruments and tuition, but also getting to rehearsals if you did not live in a city.

"As soon as you start taking away bursaries and scholarships then you aren't giving a child a chance to discover that talent and that ability that they have," he added.

"Music is for everyone, and if you just give a child an instrument, it becomes a level playing field."