Fantastic new funding for our Musical Stories project taking live music to kids across South Yorkshire
Children enjoying live music and storytelling at a Musical Stories concert
Thousands of people have enjoyed our Musical Stories concerts over the last five years - and thanks to new funding, even more people will now be able to.
We’re delighted that Concerteenies has been successful in securing £52,000 from Arts Council England towards this next chapter of Musical Stories.
This funding will allow us to build on the success of this project, which brings popular children’s books to life with engaging concerts that provide live music for children in Sheffield and beyond.
We will now be able to:
Take our latest musical story Blown Away on tour to 40 South Yorkshire schools and 50 libraries in disadvantaged areas later this year.
Take Blown Away to visit cultural venues nationally.
Commission and create a brand new music concert for children, based on the book The Duck With No Luck by Korky Paul and Jonathan Long, with renowned composer Paul Rissmann.
Create two new online films animated by Vic Craven and new digital resources for online audiences.
Co-create and pilot The Duck With No Luck with children in Barnsley, then perform it at a selection of schools in the town next year.
Provide employment and development for people in creative industries, particularly in the north and from communities underrepresented in the arts
Our Musical Stories are performed at cultural and community venues
The benefits of our Musical Stories
Based on our previous Musical Stories, we expect this new work to reach around 20,000 people.
It will help us continue to promote the importance of music in the early years by taking top quality live performances directly to the children and families who need it most.
Through our work, we know the very real impact this kind of music can have on early childhood development.
It improves children’s communication, creativity, imagination, literacy and much more besides.
Our Concerteenies musical stories have many benefits for children
The history of Musical Stories
The Musical Stories project began in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Each book chosen is carefully selected by our founder Polly Ives and Paul, who then match the narrative with a different instrument.
For Blown Away, Meera Maharaj plays the flute, and for The Duck With No Luck, a bassoon version with Daria Phillips and a duo version with pianist Annabelle Lawson will be created.
What happens now?
The Concerteenies team is hard at work behind the scenes to start making this new work a reality.
We will share all of the latest developments with our audience as soon as we can.
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