Jeremy Hunt MP praises work of Youth Music

Posted: 10 March 2009

Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport gives praise to our CEO Christina Coker

In a recent speech entitled  'We want every child to have the chance to play an instrument', Jeremy Hunt MP - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport praised the work of Youth Music and our CEO Christina Coker.

Whilst speaking at the Association of British Orchestras’ conference in Cardiff about arts funding in the UK, the Shadow Secretary said, 'One of the things that works particularly well in this country is the mixed economy funding of the arts. Most music organisations benefit from a combination of support from private giving, public support and ticket sales. Public support comes both through the taxpayer and the National Lottery......We need both types of funding because different types of funding allows different types of creativity to flourish. It is unlikely that the state could support an individual soloist right through in the way a philanthropist can; but by the same merit private giving is unlikely to replace the Arts Council's Take It Away scheme which provides interest free loans for more than 16,000 people from socially-disadvantaged backgrounds to buy musical instruments. One can imagine a philanthropist endowing the ENO or the Royal Opera House, but not perhaps doing what the lottery does in providing £10m every year to Youth Music to support the development of young musicians under Christina Coker's excellent leadership'.

During the same speech, Jeremy Hunt also called for the launch of a National Music Week - 'Here is a suggestion from the interim report of the Music Education Task Force.....They proposed establishing an annual National Music Week. Primarily, but not exclusively focused on schools, this would bring together schools, community groups, the music industry, broadcasters and local government in a week long celebration of music'.

Obviously, we agree this is a fantastic idea - we do it already with Youth Music Week!

Read full speech

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