With the new school year firmly under way, Pro Corda is so excited about its brand new programme for schools nationwide soon to launch, and we’re busy piloting it behind the scenes!
Pro Corda Academy has one overriding mission – to take the magic of chamber music training to new schools, new students, and new geographical areas.
One thing we find at Pro Corda on every single day of every single Pro Corda course – whatever the programme, from the core chamber courses to our outreach residentials – is that chamber music goes so far beyond developing the young musician. As our two Founders understood well (and it was at the heart of their mission) chamber music develops the whole young person. It develops that person’s sense of social being, their friendships, the way they interact, the way they negotiate, the way they lead others – and lead others with sensitivity and understanding. As our world seems more under pressure than ever, surely these are human qualities that are needed now more than ever.
So Pro Corda Academy truly is a mission, just like our outreach programme for additional educational needs was when we launched it 16 years ago, and is now – with as much urgency and need. In many respects Pro Corda Academy does something very similar. It takes the core principles of chamber music and adapts them for new groups, but always dialling back to those core areas of human development.
With the Academy, we will be working with schools, music hubs and others to focus on rural and coastal poverty areas where music provision often lags behind other parts of the country. We will use creative ensemble techniques to reinvigorate the reality (across many areas of the educational establishment) of shared instrumental learning – getting students not only excited about their new instrumental journey, but also that journey within an ensemble context.
We are thrilled to be starting one of our pilot projects for the Academy programme immediately after half term with our friends and neighbours at the Alde Valley Academy – right here by Leiston Abbey on the Suffolk coast! We’ll also be starting to film a series of professional training films to adjoin the Academy project with Cyrus media, alongside working with partners in Hull and the South West in the coming few months, before expanding to further areas in the new year. A London launch event will take place in early April and the whole programme will be ready for full launch in time for the September 2022 new school year.
The Academy is already being supported by our friends at John Lewis and the Reinhardt Trust, as well as several private donors and part of the pilot project will of course be to spread the word widely about the Academy’s mission and the results it can achieve.
This will be a major new Pro Corda journey, so watch this space for lots more to come on the PCA!
