Neurodiversity in Music: Improving Access shines a light on the lived experiences of neurodivergent musicians, creatives, and educators who navigate a system often unprepared to support them. Inspired by her personal journey, Shakira Alleyne dives into the challenges neurodivergent people face within the creative industries, as well as examples of best practices and the steps needed to improve access and support.
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Inspired by her own experiences, Wired4Music Associate Yasmine Dankwah has developed 'Pathways' - a podcast and audio quest that sets out to talk to young creatives from various fields about their experiences on creative training programmes, both positive and negative, and to posit ways in which organisations are supporting or can better support young people getting into the creative industries after programmes end.
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This briefing is aimed at music teachers and anyone else involved in instrumental music teaching and learning, with a particular focus on classical music. Readers may wish to use it to inform discussion with other teachers, for example as part of a professional development session. You may also wish to use it on your own, as a prompt for reflective writing or blogging on your own teaching practice.
As external evaluators of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Change Makers programme 2017-2018, Sound Connections have played a vital part in charting BSO's journey to become a more inclusive organisation. This report charts the many facets that are needed to achieve systemic change.
In January 2020, the British Council commissioned Sound Connections to evaluate the impact of World Voice. The brief was to focus on five countries with interesting and insightful World Voice stories to tell: Colombia, Ethiopia, Greece, Nepal, and Palestine. We used a mixed methodology that combined reviewing evaluation reports from the last seven years with questionnaires and depth interviews conducted by Sound Connections during 2020.
In 2023, the National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO) and Sound Connections launched an in-depth report about the first four years of the orchestra, and what has been learnt through NOYO’s pioneering approach to working with young disabled people.
The 'Youth Voice On Demand' YouTube channel was created alongside 'Youth Voice Week', by Sound Connections and Lawrence Becko Associates in 2020 to highlight the vital importance of listening to young people and involving them in shaping the future of the creative and cultural sector, as we believe that Youth Voice makes our work more representative, relatable and relevant.
A Toolkit for Exploring Youth Voice within Music-Making Practices in Classical Music.
As a charity we rely upon financial support and donations from generous individuals, trusts and foundations, and companies to make our vital work with children and young people possible