musiclinks
About
In the 19 years since MusicLinks was set up, we have managed a variety of projects. We can provide a full list on request. Here is a selection of some of the best: The Music Bus - Offering a touring stage and classroom, the double-decker visited festivals across the North-West staging hundreds of shows over seven years. CUMBRIO Touring Network - Devised with Generator North East. Cumbrio ran for five years providing young promoters with bursaries to stage concerts featuring local artists. The "Quote" project explored vanishing village life. The resulting musical was based on oral histories recorded with villagers, and local folk stories. It was performed to sell-out audiences in five venues. With support from the Big Lottery, we set up the Digital Arts Van which won the National Innovations in the Community Award presented at the House of Lords in 2008. In 2010 we won the National Green Award for Best Communication Campaign for the RFactor, an environmentally focused music project. 137 schools across the county took part. In 2011 we set up the Scribble - New Media Orchestra. Aimed at bringing together young people with additional needs with young musicians from mainstream settings the project went from strength to strength and informed our long term development aims. In 2012 we extended our work with Scribble members by setting up the SUSSED project funded through A4A. This project allowed us to introduce Scribble members with SEN to their dream job via individuals and companies in the local area. In 2013 Scribble performed a newly commissioned work called The Butterfly Suite. The songs were composed by Andy Halsey. The commission was supported through the Arts Council and the new Lake District Holocaust Centre. The resulting show featured songs, improvised pieces and poetry. There were 124 performers, including 75 members of Scribble. JAMTENT - In 2014 MusicLinks partnered with Kendal Calling Music Festival. CUMBRIO - trained young promoters Andy and Ben went on to set up Kendal Calling and invited MusicLinks to develop the festivals music outreach programme. For the last seven years, working with a number of organisations and community centres in Cumbria in the run-up to each Kendal Calling, we offer local youth and SEN groups the chance to meet and jam with the stars in the JAMTENT (www.jamtent.com) at the festival. Interactive Ensembles - During the CO~VID lockdowns we worked to ensure we could offer engaging and inclusive online provision for our beneficiaries. We ran a pilot project called Magic Notes and are now looking to further develop that work under the new title Interactive Ensembles. Watch this space!