HMDT Music’s 30th Birthday
Today is HMDT Music’s 30th birthday!
We’re extremely proud to be able to share our achievements over the past 30 years and celebrate our success in developing award-winning projects that have had a transformational impact on so many people.
Over the next few weeks we will be sharing a Retrospective of some of our ground-breaking projects and experiences here and on our website.
Founded in Hackney 1995 originally as a fundraising arm for the first satellite Junior Centre for Young Musicians, early projects included the groundbreaking Opportunities through Music offering free workshops in a range of musical genres for all ages on 5 local Council estates. In 2000, we commissioned our first children’s opera The Hackney Chronicles which was performed by several local schools, followed by our Royal Philharmonic Society award-winning community opera On London Fields. New commissions for schools continued on a regular basis including our international project Hear Our Voice created and performed by children from and in Hackney, Nuremberg and Prague; our second RPS award for Confucius Says celebrating the Beijing Olympics; our jazz opera Shadowball; dance work The Brown Bomber for the 2012 Olympics and an Excellence in Music Theatre Award for our 4 year First World War commemoration project Trench Brothers. Alongside our musical puppet show STEM Sisters, schools projects TIME and The E Project, and a host of smaller projects and workshops, One Spirit, our project for young offenders in custody and on release has expanded into PRUs and The Saturday Programme now has 8 different music training programmes including Music Treehouse (SEND) and The Julian Joseph Jazz Academy.
Over the past 3 decades we have:
• Worked with over 60,000 participants and reached around 100,000 audience members;
• Commissioned and performed over 130 new works;
• Received 3 national awards, 7 smaller ones and numerous nominations;
• Worked with over 600 schools;
• Delivered over 150,000 workshops, lessons, rehearsals and group sessions;
• Given over 2,000 performances;
• Worked in 7 custody settings and with over 15 YOTs, Probations and PRUs;
• Worked with over 150 partners in 17 different counties of England, over 15 London boroughs and 5 countries.
Throughout, we have maintained our commitment to artistic excellence, innovation, community and inclusivity in our mission to offering all young people, particularly those most disadvantaged, inspiring opportunities to enrich learning and transform lives.
Our thanks go to all the amazing funders, supporters, partners, artists, teachers, volunteers, staff and of course participants, who have helped us on our journey and enabled us to continue thriving despite the plethora of challenges facing arts organisations that we have overcome and continue to face.
Thank you!
Tertia Sefton-Green
CEO