Our work in schools

Bringing music to school children of all ages.

Inspiring the next generation and changing the future of music education

As one of the original pioneers of orchestral outreach work, LMP delivers outreach in our residencies in Croydon, East Sussex and across the UK, working alongside schools and music education hubs to inspire the next generation of musicians and music lovers.

We produce inspiring educational programmes, experiences and workshops that help support the National Curriculum.

To find out more about the projects we offer, get in touch with us via [email protected] or 020 8686 1996.

For over 30 years we have been working in collaboration with primary schools across the country, leading exciting projects that introduce students to orchestral instruments in a fun and interactive way. We run tailored workshops, concert demonstrations and bespoke projects that inspire creativity and get students excited about music.

Our school projects are designed to enhance existing musical provision, supporting delivery of the National Curriculum. In 2023/24, we worked with over 3869 students in 27 schools, delivering interactive music workshops, performances in school assemblies, GCSE Set Works mentoring, side-by-side performances projects with LMP players and more.

Even if the majority of young people do not go on to study music or play an instrument, there are many skills and attributes that are developed through music-making that enhance wellbeing, cognitive function and interpersonal skills.

If you would like to find out more or enquire about a project, please contact [email protected].

Some of our Past Education Projects

Following consultation with Music Education Hub Create Music around needs in secondary schools, we developed a pilot programme for GCSE music students in four schools in Hastings. Teachers had told us that students very rarely got to see any part of GCSE set works they were studying played live and that a more direct experience of the music would benefit their engagement and understanding of the music.

We devised sessions in class to explore the set works from a players’ perspective with live demonstration. To enrich the experience, we added a career insight session to discuss our player’s route into a career in music.

Participating students were then invited to one of our concerts at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, where we performed the set works live.

Peter and the Wolf
Adam MacKenzie led a project with Lincolnshire Music Service to work with children from schools in Lincolnshire, to create their own music based on the motifs featured in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. These compositions were then interwoven into a performance of Peter and the Wolf, given by the LMP at the South Holland Centre in Spalding, at which all of the schools involved were in attendance.
Side by Side in Shepshed
Led by composer/animateur Fraser Trainer, this project worked with seven primary schools (around 90 children) in Shepshed, Leicestershire, to help them build a new youth orchestra for the area. For one week, Fraser and LMP musicians worked with the children, split into three groups, to write their own piece of music. Fraser also arranged Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King to include performers of all ages and abilities.

At the end of the week, at an LMP Family Music Concert in Shepshed hosted by Alasdair Malloy, all the young people played their pieces as part of the concert, and then joined in with the whole LMP for Fraser’s arrangement of In the Hall of the Mountain King for a grand finale. It was a huge success, and proved a great way of getting everyone to play together and to inspire the young musicians with what it feels like to be part of a big orchestra.
Fly Away Mozart
The inspiration was the celebration of 100 years of flight and the part that Southampton Airport has played in the history of flight, including the first test flight of the legendary Spitfire plane. Led by Michael Omer, students from Woodlands School in Southampton took Mozart’s experiences and the inspiration for flight to create a new musical work over four weeks. The première took place in the main terminal of Southampton airport on 27 January 2011, making a connection between the teenage Geoffrey Wellum, the teenage composer Wolfgang Mozart and the students, themselves all teenagers bursting with new ideas. It featured a song “I Have Touched the Sky” and a rap called “Two Different Lives”, highlighting the contrasts between young Wolfgang and Geoffrey. The performance was featured on local BBC television and shows that you really can perform music to anyone, anywhere!

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The children loved the interaction with the musicians (awe and wonder all round) – something that it would be near impossible to facilitate in ordinary circumstances.

Shelia SmithMonks Orchard School

We have been very lucky to be part of such a super project yet again. It was a very skilfully thought-out project which was well organised and supported by the LMP office staff.

Vicky HemmingsAtwood Primary School

Our work in schools

Some of our Past Education Projects

Peter and the Wolf

Side by Side in Shepshed

Fly Away Mozart

Our Current Partners