Music lessons Liverpool

In Harmony Liverpool
Playing at Home: How Families Engage with In Harmony Liverpool

'...since this started, it's dead cool to play a violin in West Everton.'
- Ed Vulliamy, The Observer Sunday 3 October 2010

'The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the orchestral world’s leaders in its vigorous, wholehearted support of El Sistema.'
- Tricia Tunstall author of Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music (W. W. Norton & Co., 2012), writer and music educator who specializes in El Sistema in Venezuela, in the United States, and around the world.

In Harmony Liverpool

In Harmony Liverpool’s vision is a healthier, higher achieving future for Everton, one of England’s most disadvantaged communities. The programme aims to inspire children and their families to celebrate their community through music and to be a catalyst for them to gain the confidence to begin to change their own lives and to shape their future.

In Harmony is inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, and uses the power of orchestral music-making and the ethos and shared values of an orchestra to improve the wellbeing, skills, academic achievement, musical ability, and future employability of children, many of whom have learning difficulties, challenging family circumstances, or are otherwise vulnerable.

In Harmony emphasises intensive ensemble participation from the very earliest stage of a child’s development and uses daily music making, group learning, and the joy and fun of music, singing and dancing, to ensure that music becomes a constant part of life.

Since September 2015, In Harmony Liverpool works with over 700 children, young people and their families in the Everton Community. We work intensively across three sites, Everton Nursery School and Family Centre, The Beacon Church of England Primary School and Faith Primary School.

Our timetable includes:
• Weekly orchestra rehearsal for all children aged 7 upwards, in four separate orchestras, at both primary schools
• Twice weekly sectional rehearsals (group instrumental lessons for strings, brass, woodwind, & percussion) at both primary schools
• Twice weekly after school ensemble Everton Junior Philharmonic for children aged 9-11
• Everton Youth Philharmonic, after school provision 2 nights per week for 8-18 year olds,
• Musicianship classes for Foundation Stage children at all sites, teaching children the foundations of rhythm, pitch, pulse and meter by fun games, songs and movement.
• Weekly Tuning Into Children sessions, with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra musicians, at Everton Nursery
• Shake Up and Sing: whole school singing twice a week at Faith Primary School
• Regular attendance at various ensembles by musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, working with children 1:1 to enhance their playing, and performing for the young musicians
• Master classes by world-class artists visiting Liverpool
• Every young musician will perform in a large scale concert at least 3 times a year, in exciting local, national and international venues.
• Side by side performances and rehearsal with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and it’s conductors, including Vasily Petrenko and Andrew Manze
• Tea and Tunes informal concerts in the community by RLPO musicians and small ensembles
• Tots in Harmony sessions for parents/carers and babies under 3
• In Harmony Liverpool Summer School
• In Harmony at Home, providing live performances by children in their own living room for families and friends, accompanied and supported by professional musicians,
• Four-weekly Parent Courses, providing parents and carers with the tools and skills to support their child’s music making
• CPD for the teaching staff, and whole school staff at Everton Nursery led by Liverpool Philharmonic musicians
• Delivering training alongside Everton Nursery for Trainee Teachers
• Delivering Arts Award (national accredited qualification for young people).

Commenting on In Harmony provision in September 2013, Ofsted reported:

'The curriculum is carefully and thoughtfully planned. Music is a particularly strong feature and has an outstanding impact on the personal and spiritual development of the pupils, as they all receive four and a half hours of music support per week. Pupils are not only learning to play musical instruments but are developing a deep appreciation of music. Staff learn to play musical instruments alongside the pupils and they also perform together to a wide range of audiences, thus establishing an excellent learning community.’