Fundraising for our Jazz Programme

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.