Mayor of London's Fund For Young Musicians

Three children from LMS have been awarded scholarships from the Mayor of London's Fund For Young Musicians.
Amar Kumar, Sian Merrick and Laurence Richards attended a ceremony to mark the start of their music scholarships at City Hall on Friday 28th January. 
Present at the ceremony were music scholars from other London Borough's, dignitaries and musicians including Soweto Kinch, Rachel Portman, Chi- Chi Nwanoku and YolanDa Brown.

National Music Plan
The New National Plan for Music Education has been published and is available HERE

Lambeth Live Explosion - December 2011

The 5th Lambeth Live Explosion was held on 10th December 3-6 pm at its current place of residence, The White Lion community hub in Streatham.

The afternoon featured a host of fine performances from the various extra curricular music projects delivered across the borough of Lambeth. All of the performers are aged between 11 and 18 who access the skilled teaching methods of LMS music practitioners.

Featured performers included: “Play it Live “ from Dunraven School, The Norwood School players, Tippett Music Centre MX Live project and World Beatz from Stockwell Park High School.

This event also had the pleasure of collaborating with DJ Madmasta Lukey Luke and friends from the Groove School dj project that currently runs free workshops on Tuesday evenings at The White Lion.

Songs performed ranged from contemporary Pop/rock to Soul, Blues, Gospel, R&B, and Hip Hop.

There was a great turn out of friends and family cheering and supporting all the performers, giving this event its unique atmosphere and community feel.

The next Lambeth Live Explosion event will be held on the 31st March 2012 .

The full set of photos from this gig is available here

Lambeth Live Explosion - April 2011

The third Lambeth Live Explosion took place at the Half Moon in Herne Hill on Sunday 3rd April 2011. This event is becoming a regular occurrence in the LMS calendar, with the performers becoming ever more professional, and their performances ever more ambitious. This concert saw the use of gong and duelling glockenspiels on a performance of ‘Live And Let Die’ which can only be described as epic!

This event also saw a larger number of performers, from more schools. Notable among these was a fantastic item from Project Inter-national, the students and staff from Elm Court School.

Other groups that performed were:
Bands from Tippett Music Centre
MCs and singers from Lilian Baylis School
The Norwood Band
Lilian Baylis Groove Project
Adrenaline Rush

The pictures from the event can be found and downloaded on our Flickr photostream, and all the videos are on our Youtube channel. We also welcome your feedback, and there is an online feedback form that we would love you to fill in!

On this occasion, we had a lot of help from young people working as stage crew. There are also other opportunities to get involved, by doing artwork, taking photos/videos etc. Aside from being great fun, these opportunities provide excellent work experience, and are very useful for students to put on their CVs. Please contact us if you would like to be involved, or would like to be added to our mailing list for future information about the Lambeth Live Explosion: explosion@lambethmusic.co.uk

The next Lambeth Live Explosion is due to take place on Sunday 10th July 2011

Lambeth Live Explosion - December 2010

The second Lambeth Live Explosion took place at the Half Moon in Herne Hill on Sunday 5th December. This term’s event was even better attended than the last, and it was apparent that the quality of the performances had also improved. There was a great variety of styles and the audience were as enthusiastic as the performers!

The groups that performed were:

Three bands from Tippett Music Centre
MCs and singers from Lilian Baylis School
The Norwood Band
Lilian Baylis Groove Project
Adrenaline Rush

The Explosion event is developing a reputation for being the foremost performing opportunity for contemporary young bands and musicians in Lambeth. Lambeth Music Service is proud to be associated with such a talented group of performers.

We received a lot of positive feedback, and also some suggestions as to how we can improve future events, particularly considering that the number of performers is increasing, as well as the size of the audience.

We would also like more contribution from Lambeth students in terms of planning – there are opportunities to get involved with artwork, marketing etc. If you would like to be involved, or would like to be added to the mailing list, please contact explosion@lambethmusic.co.uk

The pictures from the event can be found at http://www.huning.co.uk/liveexplosion1210

There are videos of all the performances here

Lambeth Live Explosion - Summer 2010

The back room of a well-known South London Victorian pub may not be the first place that comes to mind for a showcase of youth music talent , but there, on a warm summer’s eve, 40 of Lambeth’s young musicians, along with an audience of friends and family, performed a 3-hour extravaganza of pop, rock, jazz, MCs and DJ sets

There is now a large number of talented young musicians who enjoy making music in more contemporary styles, and at LMS we have wanted to be able to provide a more appropriate performance opportunity for these groups and individuals. So the first Lambeth

Live Explosion took place on Sunday 25th July at The Half Moon, Herne Hill.

The event was hosted by Simple from We Are Dubist, and featured a wide range of performers and age ranges. Groups from LMS music centres took part, notably Play It Live! from Streatham Music Centre, and two younger groups from the Saturday Tippett Music Centre.

Several Lambeth Secondary schools also took the opportunity to get involved, and there were MCs, singers and musicians from Lilian Baylis Technology School, The Norwood School and Dunraven School.

As well as prepared performances, there was also an impromptu jam session which most of the participants got involved in! The audience was very enthusiastic and supportive and seemed surprised at the level of quality provided by the performers.

It is our intention that more and more people will be less and less surprised at the potential of our borough’s young musicians, through their own hard work and the tireless efforts of the Lambeth Music Service tutors.

The event was such a success that it will be repeated this term, and hopefully there will be contributions from even more of Lambeth’s young musicians. The proposed date for this term is Sunday 5th December, so keep the date free in your diary!

With a repertoire ranging from Beethoven to reggae, 1st July saw the MX Band take to the stage, featuring 150 Year 4 children from Lambeth schools playing trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute, sax and percussion; on 2nd July it was the turn of the MX String Band & Levi Roots in concert.  This band featured 200 Year 4 children from Lambeth schools playing violin and cello, plus Levi Roots performing his new single.  Gerry Stirling of LMS tells us:
“It was a fantastic event for everyone – the children, the tutors and the community.  Levi really inspired the children with his singing and performances and everyone got involved in the workshops and enjoyed themselves.  As well as musical inspiration, the children were also able to go to workshops in the Tate Library next to the square and sign up for the Lambeth Summer Reading Challenge, while our friends at the charity Water Aid, created awareness of the importance of clean water and sanitation for children in Africa.  To top it off, our LMS Information Tent received hundreds of new enquiries from families interested in learning an instrument which was really heartwarming.  But I think my best quote of the event was from one of the old guys lounging round watching who said “I know us lot are idiots and drunk, but we have really enjoyed you guys being here on the square and you have made a real difference.””
Quotes from the young musicians: “I’ve never met a famous person before!”…   “That was sick!”….  “Can we do it again next week?”

Year of Music – call for KS3 pupils to take part in the national launch
As you may be aware following Secretary of State Ed Balls’ letter to schools in July, The Department for Children, Schools and Families are announcing the academic year 09/10 as a national year of celebrating music and the developmental benefits it can provide.
The year is called Tune In, and several exciting launch events are happening across England between 10th-15th September to capture the imagination of a broad spectrum of children and young people.
The first part of the launch, taking place 12.30pm-1.00pm on Thursday, 10th September, is a live music lesson tailored for a Year 7 to Year 9 audience, featuring a host of well-known expert faces from the music industry.
Encourage the schools you work with to involve their KS3 pupils by gathering to watch the lesson via their interactive whiteboards. First Class: The Ultimate Music Lesson will feature a mix of live and pre-recorded appearances by N-Dubz, guitarist Slash, The English National Ballet, The Hoosiers, Katherine Jenkins, Jamie Cullum, DJ Yoda, Vanessa Mae, Girls Can’t Catch, VV Brown, Amanda Holden, Killa Kela and the casts of West End shows Wicked and Billy Elliot. These figures will share advice to inspire and educate pupils about the power of music, whether a young person chooses to perform, produce, create or write music, or help behind the scenes.
The 30-minute live broadcast will be streamed live from a London school at which Secretary of State Ed Balls will be present. Lesson content will be available for download afterwards at www.dcsf.gov.uk/tunein. The broadcast is scheduled over the lunch break to minimise disruption of lessons, but it would be excellent if pupils have had chance to eat and take a short break before First Class: The Ultimate Music Lesson begins.
If you or the schools you work with are able to take part, please contact Elizabeth.Bentley@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk or Hannah.Pawlby@freud.com for more information, including how to access the lesson via the interactive whiteboard.

City Hall Instrument Amnesty Ceremony
Children from Lambeth Schools performed as part of the Mayor's Music Education Summit at City Hall on the 14th January 2009. They performed as part of the 'No Strings Attached' Musical Instrument Amnesty Awards Celebration in conjunction with Time Out Magazine and the Mayor of London.

42 children from Bonneville Primary, Richard Atkins, Corpus Christi RC Primary, Wyvil Primary, Paxton Primary, Loughborough Primary and St. Luke's CE Primary School performed with Julian Lloyd Webber to the Mayor of London, leading music educators and the BBC.

You can see the video from the BBC here for a limited time (12.44 mins into the programme) and also read more about the event by clicking the following links:

www.julianlloydwebber.com

www.sting.com/

www.inharmonyengland.com

If you would like to donate an isntrument please use this link to Time Out

Lambeth Music Service was invited to perform at this prestigious event following the announcement of their success gaining £1million funding to launch the In Harmony - Lambeth project.

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LMS secures £1million funding for a pilot scheme in Lambeth.
Inspired by the “El Sistema” orchestral project in Venezuela, “In Harmony” will help raise the aspirations and life chances for a generation of children in Stockwell through an intense engagement with music. The project will be delivered by LMS with support from the Southbank Centre, AmicusHorizon and the Lambeth Children’s and Young Peoples Service.

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A Musical Boom in Lambeth
The ‘Musitrax’ System has been taken on by 27 Primary schools with over 60 classes of children benefiting from instrumental tuition – almost 3000 additional children have had at least one years experience in playing, singing and performing together since 2006.

In addition, Lambeth Music Service provides over 300 hours every week of small group and individual instrumental tuition in Lambeth schools. This represents a 100% growth in three years.

Seven schools are developing afterschool music clubs to cater for growing demand for instrumental lessons

With the opening of three new music centres, more than 4000 Lambeth pupils have instrumental music lessons every week!

Schools who have signed up to the Musitrax programme are receiving specialist vocal support for school-based staff.

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Donated Instruments come to Lambeth
The Mayor of London and TimeOut’s “No Strings Attached” Instrument Amnesty scheme adopts Lambeth as its beneficiary. Over 100 instruments have already been pledged, and there will be a symbolic hand-over in the City Hall on January 14th.

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Lambeth Schools Music Festival moves back to the Royal Festival Hall.
Following the successful Singing Festival last year, the Southbank Centre is generously supporting the entire 2009 festival which runs from March 25th -31st with an additional morning performance with the Children’s entertainer, Dan Zanes on April 3.

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