All About Kent Music

What is Kent Music ?

Kent Music is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee.

History

Kent Music was founded in 1948. Originally it was one of 15 rural music schools established by the Rural Music Schools Association (RMSA) in different parts of the UK between the 1930s to 1950s and was originally entitled "Kent Rural Music School'. RMSA was a community music education movement that deployed professional music teachers in the villages to involve village communities in practical music-making and teach them instrumental playing skills. With growing awareness of the educational importance of music, the movement gradually became more orientated towards schools and urban locations, though it never lost its roots and Kent Music has maintained a strong presence in rural communities as well as in the towns. The word "Rural" was dropped from the Kent Music title in 1969. Kent Music is a registered educational charity and now provides one of the largest music education services in Europe to schools and the wider community. Its mission statement is "Kent Music aims to foster understanding and enjoyment of music in all its forms and encourages participation and excellence in performance".

Kent Music’s first President was Yehudi Menuhin (Lord Menuhin) under whose presidency Kent Music celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1998. As one of its Jubilee celebrations Kent Music successfully captured the Guinness Book of Records World Record for the World's Largest Orchestra. The current President of Kent Music is the celebrated international conductor Sir Simon Rattle who, coincidentally just before becoming Kent Music President, set a new record himself for the World's Largest Orchestra conducting a 3,500 strong youth orchestra a few months after Kent Music wrested the record from a Pittsburgh orchestra in the USA. In July 1999, Sir Simon endorsed the work of Kent Music thus: "Music services such as Kent Music provide young people of school age as well as the wide community with unparalleled opportunities to develop skills in music-making. This valuable educational work benefits the musical culture of the whole nation."

What does Kent Music do?

Kent Music delivers instrumental and vocal teaching to over 14,000 pupils, mostly school age (5-19) but also including several hundred pre-school and adult pupils, throughout the County of Kent. All orchestral instruments and most non-orchestral instruments are taught covering a range of genres and styles from classical and jazz on the one hand to popular and World music on the other. Voice is taught as a solo study and through choral activity. Kent Music employs 200 peripatetic teachers, most of them part-time but with a small full-time core, teaching pupils from around 570 schools in Kent and Medway local authorities. Additionally, Kent Music runs out-of-school music centres situated in many of the main towns and cities of Kent offering a range of ensemble activities such orchestras, bands, choirs, jazz ensembles, world music, rock & pop, chamber groups and so on. The standard of Kent Music pupils covers the entire range from beginner to diploma level and the age range is from 0 months (in ZingZone classes for parents/carers and toddlers) to 80+, as music becomes an increasingly popular pastime for retired people. Most of Kent Music work is non-selective and anyone, regardless of ability, can learn and join an appropriate ensemble. However, for the most talented students, there is Kent Music Academy, which offers intensive high-level tuition and supporting ensemble work for selected students aged 8 to 18. Kent Music Academy meets on Saturday mornings.

Kent Music also provides a range of county ensembles which perform nationally and internationally. Most county groups undertake regular overseas concert tours which have included visits to: USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, South Africa, Israel, and most countries in Europe. Many Kent Music students take the instrumental and vocal examinations of the national grade examination boards such as the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (AB). Trinity College London (TCL), and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD). Kent Music pass rates of 93% (AB), 98% (TCL) and 99% (GSMD) are high. Although the examination boards do not publish their national average pass rates any longer, the last AB published national pass rate was 80% which gives an idea of the Kent Music standard.

Each summer, Kent Music organises the Kent Music Summer School consisting of three weeks of residential music-making for 1,000 young instrumentalists and vocalists coached by 100 music staff working with the students in orchestras, bands and choirs. The three summer schools are each about a week long and each cater for the three different specialisms of:

• Symphony orchestra / string orchestra
• Wind orchestra / brass ensemble / percussion ensemble / jazz orchestra / Keyboard orchestra
• Junior choral / senior choral / barbershop / recorder

Teaching quality is regarded by Kent Music as being of paramount importance and we invest substantially in staff training. Kent has a thriving and competitive music teaching marketplace in which Kent Music is the established market-leader and the approved provider for Kent and Medway LEA schools. Kent Music is successful because we are committed to working in partnership with the local authorities and their schools. In addition, we know that the service we provide must be of the highest quality. Kent Music teachers are selected by competitive interview and audition and we then offer regular in-service training following appointment. Teachers are regularly observed and appraised by the Teaching Development Manager. The teaching skills of our staff are monitored and our programme of continuous professional development is designed to ensure that teaching skills are maintained at the highest possible level. Whilst much of our training programme is proved in-house training, we do provide some support for staff to attend courses offered by external providers.

How is Kent Music funded?

Kent Music is largely funded by fees paid by students (or, in most cases, their parents) or by schools who engage Kent Music teachers on an hourly basis. This accounts for over 80% of our revenue. Most of the remainder comes from various sources of public funding including in particular the two local education authorities of Kent and Medway together with the Department for Children Schools and Families. Kent Music is fortunate in developing a strong creative partnership with its principal sponsors, KCC and Medway Councils. Kent Music values these partnerships and is intent on building on them.