BE THERE - support young people during coronavirus

World Heart Beat has been busier than ever over the summer months, creating a variety of online music projects, as well as continuing its online music lessons for its students whilst self-isolating at home.   

In July, World Heart Beat welcomed its first ever virtual online Piano Party Festival – giving young pianists across London the opportunity to take to the spotlight virtually and showcase their musical skills to an online audience. 

The Festival saw over sixty young pianists (aged 5 to 25 years) of all levels of experience perform their chosen piece of music live from their own homes. Five concerts took place over a weekend which were live streamed via zoom to family, friends the wider community.  

The young people who took part showed huge skill, ability and confidence, and following the hugely positive feedback we will be repeating this virtual event annually. 

This summer, the academy was kindly donated 30 Scarlett Solo audio interfaces by Focusrite, the global music and audio products group. This incredible gesture of generosity was made possible by Focusrite CEO Tim Carroll. 

World Heart Beat’s bass tutor, Nick Cohen, produced an online tuition course and carried out mentoring to show the students how to set up the audio interfaces, and maximise their sound and recording production. The audio interfaces enable our young musicians to produce, record and mix with studio quality, whilst in the safety of their own homes. 

They are being used in a range of scenarios from one-to-one online music lessons through to taking part in the Academy’s recording projects, including our Facebook streamed Gala Concert, distance mentoring our World Heart Beat bands, and working on World Heart Beat’s latest project For the Struggle – a series of concerts highlighting important social issues, illuminated with music, especially in the midst of Black Lives Matter and the world’s racial temperature.  

At the end of July, World Heart Beat held its annual Gala Concert, in partnership with charity Music for Liberia, this time produced virtually and streamed for the first time via Facebook. Young musicians and alumni, as well as students from Music for Liberia’s beneficiaries – including the Agape National Academy of Music (ANAM), Cachelle International Creative Arts Centre and Mother Blessing’s Home - performed at the event.  

There were also performances from special guest Ric’key Pageot (Steinway Artist, Madonna’s Madame X Tour) and Kamilla Arku, Music for Liberia Founder and Director and a World Heart Beat Piano teacher. Money raised goes to support children in Liberia through education and creative arts provision, funding sponsorships, supporting rural schools and providing accommodation for Ebola orphans. 

From 7-13th September, World Heart Beat took part in Radio Local on Riverside Radio – an exciting collaboration between innovative performance artists Hunt & Darton and Nine Elms residents to produce a daily live broadcast that will bring the stories of Nine Elms into people’s homes. 

From local legends to unsung heroes, from the mundane to the extraordinary, Radio Local is a celebration of local radio and community. The upbeat daily show celebrates the joys and necessity of local radio and what it means to be part of the Nine Elms community, in partnership with Wandsworth Council and Battersea Arts Centre. 

Young students from World Heart Beat Academy and the Elays network collaborated together and took part in workshops and got the opportunity to build on their radio production skills and learnt how to produce their own radio shows.  

Please do keep checking our website and social media pages for our latest news and announcements. Nest stop, our For the Struggle concert will be live streamed on Friday 9th October - watch this space for more info! 

We hope that you, your families and loved ones are all safe during this difficult time. 

“In these times, oneness, and the feeling of community and humanity are so vitally important. Music has the unbelievable magic of being able to bring these feelings into our lives. I can’t imagine a life without music.”  Sahana Gero, World Heart Beat Founder and Artistic Director  

We believe this is a critical time for us to support our students, and therefore we have taken World Heart Beat Music Academy online and are offering music making sessions to include 1:1 lessons and supported practice, as well as social sessions, for EVERY young person. That’s 350 students and 475 sessions every week! 

 
The coronavirus crisis is making it very tough for some young people, particularly those living in challenging circumstances who may feel heightened levels of anxiety and loneliness. Being unable to continue with music lessons can make our young people feel disconnected from not seeing their World Heart Beat ‘family’ who provide them with support which they may be missing at home. It’s also a change to their weekly routine at a difficult and isolating time, and a discontinuity of their music learning which gives them a sense of purpose and helps boost self-confidence. 

 
With these factors in mind, World Heart Beat Music Academy has launched its GlobalGiving BE THERE campaign to request funding to support all our young people with the opportunity for music learning, particularly those living in difficult circumstances. Please help us by supporting our campaign now!  

We are proud to announce our partnership with ZEDRA who are sponsoring our Jazz development programme. ZEDRA’s partnership will fund the participation of eight talented young musicians with significant promise, for whom support is needed to enable them to reach their full potential.Our jazz students are receiving tuition from exceptional musicians even during this lockdown period.  

Community is so important for us all at World Heart Beat and so our young people have been recording at home. We are excited that we will be able to share with you very soon our three#HeartbeatAtHome music videos to support our young musicians and help drive awareness of our GlobalGiving BE THERE campaign further. Please look out in the following few days to find out more from us on this exciting collaboration! 
 

We have been given the amazing in kind support by A-lister Nick Cohen (top UK session bassist and songwriter whose credits includes Eurythmics, Roy Ayers, Massive Attack, Matt Bianco and Ive Mendes) who arranged and mixed the audio of one of our lockdown videos, and bytwo times Grammy award winning Producer-Mixer-EngineerCraig Cameron (UNKLE, Adele, Annie Lennox, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Suzanne Vega, Amy Winehouse to name a few) and edited by Michael Csanyi-Wills, award winning composer with credits that include feature length film scores. 
 

Our Widening Horizons Programme supported by the Jack Petchey Foundation for young volunteers (aged 15 - 25 years) has now launched. We are delighted to announce our Heartbeat Collective, a group of seven young people selected for their passion for music and a desire to make a positive contribution to the academy and the local community.  

To get you in the mood and to awaken the vocal chords, the highly talented vocalist and lyric soprano Ilona Domnich has started her Morning Wake Up classes which are FREE and open to all young people, every Wednesday morning. Pls email info@worldheartbeat.org if you’d like further information.  

This year we are taking part once again in the Wandsworth Arts Fringe (8 - 24th May) the annual festival highlighting local music, arts, theatre and dance this year from the comfort of your own living room. We will have a selection of performances and live streams taking place from our World Heart Beat musicians. 

We hope that when brighter days return, our young people will be well and happy, and ready to come together once again to play and perform for you again in person!