Yamaha Education News

Top Musicians backing massive national free music lesson scheme

Patron for the Yamaha Music Schools and ChildLine Rocks fundraising project, Joe Bonamassa, performing at the Classic Rock Awards on Monday 2 November

A capacity Classic Rock Awards ceremony in early November provided a high-profile launch-pad for a major fundraising announcement by Yamaha Music Schools and the charity, ChildLine Rocks. Guests - Slash, Ronnie Wood, Brian May, Iggy Pop, Aerosmith, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Iron Maiden and the project's patron, Joe Bonamassa, all applauded the free music lesson scheme. Joe Bonamassa also received the 'Best Breakthrough Act' award on the night.

ChildLine Rocks 2010 will make a significant contribution towards raising funds for ChildLine as part of the NSPCC's Child's Voice Appea,l which needs to raise £50m to ensure that every child’s call for help gets answered. Currently, the NSPCC is only able to answer two-thirds of the annual 2.3m calls made to ChildLine. Joe Bonamassa comments: "I think the fact that Yamaha is able to offer free music lessons to people of all ages, and help raise funds for ChildLine, presents an amazing opportunity for people to experience music who wouldn't otherwise be fortunate enough to afford it. To me music is a form of expression like no other, which everyone should be given a chance to discover."

During the campaign Yamaha's national network of music schools is offering free music lessons to introduce people of all ages to music-making for the first time, during which participants will be asked for a voluntary donation of a few pounds for each lesson session. The ambitious programme is open to people of all ages and the tuition will be provided by fully trained music teachers via the 90-strong national network of Yamaha Music Schools, which already teaches over 9000 pupils every week. It's expected substantial funds will be raised for ChildLine, the free helpline for children provided by the NSPCC.

Musicians backing the scheme include Paolo Nutini, Joe Bonamassa, The Enemy's Tom Clarke, double Grammy award-winning producer and Sting band member, Kipper, and long-time ChildLine advocate, Thunder's Luke Morley. They are joined by jazz ace Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland and drummers Troy Miller (Amy Winehouse), Skunk Anansie's Mark Richardson and Andrew Small from Massive Attack.

To super-charge participation and fund-raising, this year's programme will culminate in a 2010 ChildLine Rocks event, where a band formed from Yamaha Music School pupils will be invited to open a show, following a public vote. The band will then become Young ChildLine Rocks ambassadors, touring schools to raise funds and awareness following the concert.

Yamaha's ProMusic divisional director, Ricci Hodgson, is keen to reinforce that: "Yamaha is really proud to be involved with ChildLine Rocks and recognises the hugely valuable work that the charity undertakes to raise funds for ChildLine. Yamaha is founded on a culture of enriching people's lives through music making, whilst ChildLine takes the most vulnerable children in our community and offers a lifeline to them. We'd like to think that this partnership will help the more fortunate to help the less fortunate in our community."

Nigel Burrows, UK manager of Yamaha Music Schools, told us "This is a fantastic campaign combining free music-making opportunities with a substantial fund-raising effort for ChildLine. We have been inspired by the level of support we have received from our artist friends, who will ensure that we get maximum awareness and impact, thus leading to more lessons and cash for ChildLine. Our aim is to raise about £60,000 and then ensure that the programme takes place annually."

The promotion will also be boosted by regional fundraising events and concerts throughout the year and a selection of instruments signed by musician supporters has been made available for additional activities. To find out more about how to get involved please visit Yamaha Download.

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(Posted 9/11/09)