Reflections and Milestones; Kent Music’s 2023-2024 in review
As we come to the end of the academic year I would like to take a moment to reflect and to thank you for all your support during the year.
It’s been an important year for Kent Music. We have been in existence for 75 years and in May this year it was announced that we will become the lead organisation for a new Music Hub for Kent & Medway. This means that we will be funded by Arts Council England to continue to provide music education services both in and out of school alongside schools and other partners.
We will be adding Medway to our area from September and are excited by the possibilities that this brings to integrate two areas that used to be part of the same county!
We have made some important strides forward during the year. We are teaching more children than in the previous year and participation in our out of school activities is strong. Kent Music Summer School in particular is now oversubscribed and our county ensembles and groups such as Orchestra ONE continue to thrive.
We are reaching more schools than ever by supporting ensembles, choirs and whole class instrumental lesson. In addition, this year we provided bespoke advisory support to over 50 schools in the county. Our schools conference in November attracted over 160 schools. We continue to innovate and in October collaborated with our neighbours Jasmin Vardimon Company to create a new piece of music and dance, performed live by the participants.
There is so much more to say, and we are very proud of what we have achieved. None of it will be possible without your support. Thank you.
Have a very good summer and we look forward to seeing you in the autumn.
Best wishes,
Peter Bolton