MUSIQUE Project Gets Youth Music Grant

Following January’s ‘whole activity’ conference in Leicester, the Federation has been working on a Youth Music grant application to deliver one of the suggestions made by discussion groups during the day. It has just been announced that The Federation will receive a £29,700 grant to deliver a pilot project to encourage bands and corps to liaise more actively with the wider music community.

Working in areas identified by Youth Music, four bands have agreed to pilot this initiative – Upton from Worcestershire, Concord from Sheffield, Medina from the Isle of Wight and Essex Marching Corps. They will be tasked with working closely with a music professional from their area and also taking their band’s expertise into schools and other community groups. The overall aim is to raise the number of ‘new music makers’, and to further strengthen leadership and the musical abilities of band members

The Federation’s Jim Vaughan says “MUSIQUE has been one of the toughest grant applications I have been involved in because of quite specific criteria demanded by Youth Music, and will be a real challenge for the four bands. The Federation is very grateful for their co-operation”.

During the course of the 16 month grant period the Federation will publish the experiences of each band with the aim of encouraging other bands to follow similar routes towards successful involvement with their local music makers.

This is one area of progress made since January’s conference. The draft of the ‘whole activity’ four year strategy – provisionally titled ‘Marching2012’ will be sent to Conference delegates for consultation in October, aiming for final publication in early December.

More information can be found at www.marchingbands.org.uk