Formation | 1977 |
---|---|
Founder | Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Ian Stoutzker |
Type | Charity |
Headquarters | Liverpool, England |
Chairperson | Sir Vernon Ellis |
Website | http://www.livemusicnow.org.uk |
Live Music Now is a charity working and campaigning to create inclusive, measurable social impact through music.
The charity works with special educational needs providers and care homes to provide live music participation to those living in challenging circumstances who rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to experience live music.
The name Live Music Now covers several connected charities around the world, the first of which was founded in the UK in 1977 by violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Sir Ian Stouzker. The organisation follows Yehudi Menuhin's belief that "Music, amongst all the great arts, is the language which penetrates most deeply into the human spirit...so that it might comfort, heal and bring delight." [1]
Sir Vernon Ellis has been the chairman since 2018.
Live Music Now was founded in 1977 in the United Kingdom, by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Founder Chairman, Ian Stoutzker CBE. Live Music Now UK has reached 2.8 million people through over 80,000 workshops and interactive performances. In 1984, Live Music Now extended into Scotland, forming a sister organisation, Live Music Now Scotland.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Live Music Now put together an archive of online musical resources which could be accessed by families, teachers and care home staff to allow children and residents to watch pre-recorded and live-streamed performances remotely.
Live Music Now employs over 350 professional musicians, ranging from performers of Western classical and jazz to those playing traditional instruments such as the West African kora. Musicians are recruited, trained and mentored to provide them with the skills needed to lead in-person and digital sessions in various settings.
Live Music Now works with schools and communities, connecting musicians with audiences for whom they can make a real difference. Examples of this work are Lullaby Projects and Inspire musician residencies in schools for children with additional needs and disabilities.
In Lullaby projects, musicians are paired with families to write a personalised lullaby for their baby. This project follows a model established by Carnegie Hall in New York, [2] and is being developed with the NHS and other partners across the UK. The project’s aims are to improve peri-natal healthcare and reduce health inequalities caused by economic, cultural and education disadvantage.
Live Music Now works with care providers, care settings, and the people that live and work in them, bringing the enjoyment, excitement and benefits of live music back into peoples’ lives, through one-off participatory concerts, residencies and training. The Live Music in Care musicians in residence programme helps to develop and nurture sustainable musical activity in care settings, supporting well-being and workforce development.
Aiming to combat feelings of loneliness and isolation in the UK, [3] Songs & Scones are events for isolated members of local communities. During the events, attendees are provided with refreshments and a live musical performance and have the opportunity to socialise with other local residents and access local council services.
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin,, was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
George Enescu, known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor, and teacher and is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history.
The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. The school is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in the United Kingdom, along with Chetham's School of Music, Wells Cathedral School, the Purcell School and St. Mary's Music School, Edinburgh. It is mainly funded by the Department for Education's Music and Dance Scheme, by philanthropic foundations, by donations and bequests from individuals, and by regular support from the Friends of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Subramaniam Lakshminarayana is an Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music.
The Bath International Music Festival was held late each spring in Bath, South West England between 1948 and 2016. The festival included many genres such as Jazz, Classical, World and Folk and merged with the Bath Literature Festival in 2017 to create a new multi-arts festival, The Bath Festival.
The International Music Council (IMC) was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization. Its primary aim is to facilitate the development and promotion of international music-making.
Sophie Solomon is a British violinist, songwriter and composer who fuses many different musical influences into her music. She was artistic director of the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS from 2012 to 2015 and is now Chief Marketing Officer at high-growth music technology start-up ROLI.
Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 1, written in 1853, was his only violin concerto and one of his last significant compositions. It remained unknown to all but a very small circle for more than 80 years after it was written.
Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti is an Italian-Scottish classical solo violinist and festival director. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as with Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Since 2012, she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin. In 2019, she founded the music education charity The Benedetti Foundation and became the first woman to lead the Edinburgh International Festival when she was made Festival Director on 1 October 2022.
Yaltah Menuhin was an American-born British pianist, artist and poet.
Susan Elizabeth Digby, Baroness Eatwell OBE, known as Suzi Digby, is a British choral conductor and music educator.
The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists is an international music competition for violinists under the age of 16. It was founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1983 with the goal of nurturing young violinists. In its early years, the competition took place in Folkestone on the south coast of England. Since 1998, it has been held biennially in different cities around the world. Several of the competition's past laureates, including Julia Fischer, Tasmin Little, and Nikolaj Znaider, have gone on to major international careers.
Daniel Hope is a South African born classical violinist.
The East Neuk Festival is an annual music festival that takes place over five days around 1 July in the area known as the East Neuk of Fife.
Norman Perryman was born in Birmingham, England in 1933, was educated at the Worcester Royal Grammar School, and studied painting and art education at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts, graduating with Honours in 1954. He emigrated to the Netherlands in 1957, then moved to Switzerland. He was Head of Art at Aiglon College (1967–73) and from 1976–1990 was Chief Examiner for the Visual Arts programme of the International Baccalaureate, designing and developing the Visual Art curriculum and traveling worldwide to give workshops on the role of the arts in education and the relationships of the visual arts and music. He returned to Holland in 1978 and now lives in Amsterdam.
Jeremy Louis Eugene Menuhin is a composer and pianist and the son of violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
Edna Michell is an Israeli-American violinist, pedagogue, and founder and director of music festivals, institutes, and concert series, known for her versatility and her efforts to expand the violin and chamber music repertoire.
Compassion Through Music is an ongoing project created by violinists Edna Michell and Yehudi Menuhin, in which leading composers write works inspired by the theme of universal compassion. The project reflects Michell and Menuhin’s belief that compassion is critical to the fate of humanity and that through music, listeners may be moved to connect more deeply with others.
Welsh Singers Competition, is a biennial singing competition that is held in Cardiff, Wales. The winner of the competition represents Wales in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in the following year. The competition is open to Welsh classical singers aged between 17 and 31. The final of the competition in 2022 was held at The Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff. Previously it has been held at St David's Hall in Cardiff.
Sir Ian Isaac Stoutzker CBE was a British banker, musician and philanthropist.