The donation, made through the Mayor’s Music Education Fund which was launched earlier this year, will allow over 5,000 young people to develop their musical skills over the next 2 years. City Hall says the scheme is intended to help youngsters “from a diverse social background and at different levels of learning”.
Partnerships include tie-ups between local authority music services and professional music organisations including the London Philharmonic and the BBC Concert Orchestras.
Mayor Johnson said he hoped the fund’s donation would “be the start of a return to a London of yesteryear, when musical education was of a high standard across the board and instruments were generously thrust into the hands of young people irrespective of musical prowess or parents ability to pay. Musical exploration should not be for the few, but for everyone.”
Graeme Smith, Head of Croydon Music and Arts said the funding would “help us to draw upon the expertise of our local professional orchestra to enable our young musicians to feel part of the world of music; an experience which will be of great benefit to their education.”
The donation follows as previous initiative to give unwanted musical instruments to youths in Lambeth.
