Central Bedfordshire Council news and press releases

Central Bedfordshire’s young carers team up with Bath Philharmonia for concert

Friday, 9 July 2021

Young carers in Central Bedfordshire put on a concert for parents and council representatives after being taught to play instruments by the Bath Philharmonia during half term in June.

Inspiring Music, our music service, along with our Early Help team, organised the sessions with the Bath Philharmonia which has ten years’ experience of working with young carers across the country. Members of the orchestra travelled to Bedfordshire during half term to teach 26 young carers to play a number of pieces of music on instruments including the drums, keyboard, guitars and violins.

After attending practice sessions, the young carers put on a concert at The Grove Theatre in Dunstable to show off their new skills to their parents and family members. The joint services took care to ensure the event was compliant with COVID-19 restrictions, with social distancing in place.

The music service organised the sessions as a way to give the young carers time away from their responsibilities, to learn new skills and, most importantly, to have fun!

Charlotte Payne, Music Director, Inspiring Music said:

The performance was a roaring success - the children performed their socks off! It was an absolute pleasure to see how they had blossomed, not only as musicians but as young, confident young people. Their parents were full of praise and were so very proud of what their children had achieved while working with the Bath Philharmonia.

We hope to be able to run similar projects in the future for more young carers, so they are able to experience the joy of learning new music and performing to an audience. Young carers have so many responsibilities and it’s wonderful to be able to provide some respite for them and help them learn new skills too.

Simone Homes, General Manager of the Bath Philharmonia, said:

It’s hard not to be moved by the young people that we work with on these projects. I hope this will be just the start of other musical opportunities for these young carers, and it was a pleasure to work with them, Inspiring Music and Central Bedfordshire Council’s Early Help team to make it happen.

One parent remarked:

As a parent, guilt was a big factor in my illness and learning that our lives had to be different. Groups like these give me an opportunity to see how amazing these children are, and the fact that they can benefit from the situations they have faced by growing resilience. It was really amazing to see staff who were so passionate in helping these children and it made me feel really happy! It has really made a positive difference to our family.

Inspiring Music is Central Bedfordshire’s music service, offering music lessons in schools, music centres and support for schools and teachers. If you’d like to find out more, visit visit Inspiring Music's website.

You can also:

Find out more about the Bath Philharmonia.