Fundraising for our Jazz Programme

Recently, we had our first Open Day. So many young children came in and were all free to roam the academy trying out guitars, trumpets, french horns saxophones, clarinets, flutes, tabla, violins and piano. At 20 minute intervals they all sat down and there were a few short performances given by the World Heart Beat students, before the taster sessions started up again.

The day was organised by Kirsty (17) for her Gold Arts Award, and the taster sessions were run by World Heart Beat students, many of whom are fully supported by your donations. Our young musicians had the opportunity to experience teaching the workshops and running their own event. The kids were fantastic managing the guestlist, decorating the academy and giving all the visitors the grand tour of the facilities! A big thank you to Kirsty, Milla, Ola, Nathan, Isabel, Elizabeth, Arturs, Bedr, Armaan, Evangelina and Leonela for your help on the day.

There was a great vibe at this event, it was so nice to see children having their imagination sparked. This was particularly great for the 5, 6 and 7 year olds who are not quite ready to have formal lessons but too old for our baby and toddler music classes, to give them the chance to try, learn and play in a really informal and relaxed way. It was so inspiring and joyful for everyone involved:

“We came along on Saturday to your open day. I just wanted to say a huge thank you for kindly opening your doors and inspiring us all with allowing everyone to have a go at all the  musical instruments and see some of the children teach us as well as perform! It was a  super afternoon!” - Visiting parent

We enjoyed the open day so much, that we want to make them a regular feature at World Heart Beat. This will enable more of our students to gain valuable transferable skills in event planning, marketing, leadership, communication, teamwork and organisation. This was such a fantastic opportunity to open our doors to the community and give more 5-7 year old children the chance to get excited about music and try a range of instruments before they find the one they really want to learn. Nathan (13), who was teaching saxophone and bass guitar on the day remarked "That was so much fun! When can we do the next one?"

Thank you all for your continuing support that makes projects like this possible. We look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon!

Last week, we hosted an evening of Brazilian music to celebrate the end of our Viola Caipira course, the first ever brazilian ten stringed guitar course in Europe, led by master player Almir Pessoa. Even our youngest guitarists took part in the event, playing custom-made Caipiras especially designed for World Heart Beat. Thank you to everyone who gave donations at this event, your generosity goes a long way to help support young people who love music but are unable to afford to learn.

We have also recently launched a new and accessible Contemporary Keyboard project, supported by your donations. We found that there are so many extremely talented young people who are missing out on learning to play piano because of the cost of individual tuition. Instead of focusing on classical music and grades, this project teaches young people to listen for the chords in songs they love and link them together, empowering them to play the music they are passionate about and giving them the confidence to accompany themselves while singing. This project aims to give young people teamwork skills and increase their adaptability as musicians to expand their repertoire, enable them to play in bands and start gigging as working musicians.

“The teachers make the keyboard class easy to understand and fun to take part in. I go to loads of gigs and I’m doing music A level at school. I want to be able to play in bands when I leave school so this has just been amazing for me.” - Caroline

Through the contemporary keyboard project, our young musicians are also being given the opportunity to musically direct bands by planning their own set lists and learning how to organise performers, rehearsals and equipment, giving them the skills they need to become working musicians, or to take with them into other areas such as event management .

Combined with our radio show on Wandsworth Radio Station, and mentoring programme where older students teach younger ones, this project is enabling young people to learn many skills which prepare them for working in the creative industries and beyond, and promote a culture of giving back and positivity that young people will take with them through their lives.