It has been a lifeline for the Brownes. Frank Browne was born with only one kidney, which was damaged, and by the time he was in his teens, was failing. He had his first transplant when he was 15, his second three years ago, and in between, years of dialysis. He describes his chances of working as a mechanic again ? a job he loved ? as 'pretty slim'. Frank and Sally have two other children, Max, four, and Ben, 14, who has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. Sally's role is of carer. 'I'd like to work, but at the moment it's impossible,' she says. 'Just looking after everyone feels like more than a full-time job.'
Sally is highly musical herself and regrets that she didn't have the chance to pursue it. 'It was difficult fin-ancially, and music just wasn't on my dad's radar.' She noticed that from an early age Charlie would use his keyboard to calm himself down. 'His behaviour wasn't great. Music has been a great comfort,' she says. The Brownes have been paying for piano lessons for a couple of years ? he's now Grade 3 ? but finding the money for Charlie to carry on learning the cello was 'not an option.'
Parents in Sutton expect to pay about ?120 per term for their child's instrumental tuition on top of ?24 instrument hire, and another ?40 to attend the Young Musician String Group, held in a secondary school on Monday evenings.
When I ask Charlie how his cello makes him feel, he makes a face, but he's desperate to answer the question: 'It's an emotional feeling. When I'm playing everything else goes away,' he says. 'I just want to do it all the time.'
'Charlie has naturally perfect pitch... not all of them do,' says his string teacher, Philip Aslangul. Charlie is about to take his Grade 2 cello exam. He is also a gifted singer, is a chorister at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, and a member of Sutton Boys' Choir. I ask him how he would have felt if he couldn't have carried on learning his instrument through MFYM and he corrects me: 'I would have carried on singing of course. I have my voice ? and that's an instrument, you know.'
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, freely admits that as a boy he had 'all the opportunity and none of the talent', and is a staunch supporter of music in education. When Munira Mirza, his youth and culture adviser, took up her post in 2008, it was one of the first areas she suggested they look at. 'We both felt music education was an area that had been neglected and quite underfunded over the years. It wasn't that there hadn't been effort,' she says. 'There were lots of opportunities for children in the capital to have a go at playing an instrument but there is still little opportunity for talented children from poorer backgrounds to continue learning.'
When Veronica Wadley became the chairman of the Arts Council in 2010, Mirza asked her to join the Greater London Authority Music Education Advisory group; Wadley then worked on a proposal for a new charity, with the mayor as patron. Within three months she had pulled together a team of 15 trustees from the music and business worlds. She called in, as she says, 'special favours'. 'I knew that we had to have an influential board, otherwise nothing would happen.'
Barely two years on, MFYM's first 100 scholars are at the end of their first year, and in Sept-ember the second tranche of scholars will begin. Responsibility for selecting MFYM scholars rests with London's borough music services, who may nominate up to six children each year, from which MFYM chooses three, according to stringent criteria. Children must demonstrate significant musical talent and come from a background where the cost of the instrument and tuition would prevent them continuing to learn. Crucially, they must have 'full family support', since they are expected to spend a significant chunk of their spare time practising and attending extra classes. The chief executive of MFYM, Ginny Greenwood, says she and the trustees agonised over this checklist, which inevitably created some dilemmas. 'Free school meals has been dropped as a criterion because lots of parents don't like the stigma [and therefore don't sign up to them],' she says. 'We've now decided to rely on the expert judgment of head teachers ? which seems a better way of ensuring the most deserving are selected.'
Research suggests that exposure to music early in life supports children in almost all areas of development. Listening to and performing music improves phonetic awareness, which develops language and literacy skills. It also has an impact on spatial reasoning, which is linked to mathematical thinking, and on physical coordination, which supports handwriting skills. But the same research reflects a depressing lack of follow-through.
The Government's first National Plan for Music, due to come into effect in August, will attempt to close the gaps by making instrumental tuition in all schools compulsory rather than discretionary. It incorporates a whole-class instrumental programme, including an instrument hire scheme, a 'singing strategy', and performance opportunities for all, not merely those lucky enough to be in schools with a musically engaged head teacher.
John Golightly, the head teacher at Green Dragon Primary School in Isleworth, west London, believes the twin outlets of music and sport have the potential to transform lives. Green Dragon sits in the middle of the Haverfield estate, at the foot of six vast tower blocks, where 60 per cent of the school's 500-plus children live. More than 60 per cent speak English as a second language and 40 per cent receive free school meals. Here, a singing assembly is held every Thursday for the whole school. 'We don't have a music director as such,' Golightly explains brightly. 'What we do have is masses of enthusiasm.'
One tiny Year 6 girl from Somalia has started playing the tuba, not especially supported by her parents, who consider music a 'waste of her time' and won't let her practise at home. 'It's tricky,' Golightly concedes. 'But it's our job to engender a passion for learning, and music is part of that.'
Every year, Hounslow Music Services, which teaches 7,000 children per week, has used its Wider Opportunities budget to provide instruments for each child in Year 4, and tuition for a full year. The same thing, on tighter and tighter budgets, is happening in Tower Hamlets, where children who show promise get a second year of lessons free of charge. At Green Dragon, Golightly sets aside ?10,000 a year from the school's budget to buy in teaching from Hounslow Music Services, enabling all those who want to carry on until they finish primary school. Last year almost every child continued into Year 5 and in the current Year 6, 60 per cent are still going.
Under Golightly's headship, the school has moved from an Ofsted grading of 'special measures' to 'outstanding', and as it increases in size, so does its funding. But even so, sacrifices have had to be made. 'The hall badly needs decorating ? the quote for that is ?14,000,' he says. 'We were hoping to do it this summer, but I know when I have to decide, music is going to be the priority.'
Bishal Debnath, an 11-year-old Green Dragon pupil and MFYM scholar, began playing the trombone in Year 4, transferring to trumpet after a year. ('The trombone was too big and I didn't like its low tone.') Since then he has progressed rapidly: he has already passed his Grade 2 trumpet exam and is champing at the bit to take Grade 3.
Bishal's father, Bidya, came to Britain in 1990 after studying for a degree in politics and economics in Bangladesh. He abandoned plans to study law when he met his wife Shufhama, who now looks after their five children aged from 13 to four. Bidya's motto is: 'Don't look left or right! Focus on learning.' He is thrilled that Bishal, who is about to transfer to secondary school, can now not only read music but also wants to study Latin. 'Latin! Can you imagine?' he says, shaking his head. But Bishal has thought it through: 'It will help me with English and music if I know the root of language.'
Bishal says he wants a career in music. 'I want to be in an orchestra ? preferably a soloist. I just love playing and I especially love classical music,' he says. 'It's so cool! I'm practising some really challenging Grade 8 pieces at home at the moment. I can only play the first few bars but they really test how good you are.'
The family has just moved from one of the tower blocks near school to a three-bedroom house, which Bidya has spent six months decorating from top to bottom. Unable to find a job in catering, he lives on income support and spends all his spare time tutoring his two sons and three daughters. And do they complain? 'Well in that way, I'm very strict. They must do it.'
Bishal's brass teacher, Alan Goodall, has watched Bishal metamorphose into a super-keen student since winning his MFYM scholarship. 'He is highly conscientious, not only practising set work, but he also watches music clips on YouTube and downloads sheet music,' he says. 'He's joined the Hounslow Youth Wind Band and has been promoted to first trumpet. He has never missed a rehearsal.'
I ask Bidya what he would have done if Bishal hadn't won the MFYM scholarship. 'Well I can't deny my children the chance to learn so I'd have cut something else from our budget,' he says. What could you cut? He thinks for a moment. 'Food. We'd have eaten more dahl. There's always a way.'
Each MFYM scholarship costs ?4,000 to deliver over four years; the first million was raised in just under nine months; Ginny Greenwood suspects next year will be harder. 'We are constantly looking for individuals and businesses to fund scholarships,' she says. 'For ?1,000 a year, our sponsors give children the gift of music which will stay with them their whole lives.'
Some local music services are providing 'shadow funding'. Oonah Barry, the head of Hounslow Music Services, has three MFYM scholars and three 'shadow kids', who under the original criteria (parents must earn less than ?18,000) didn't qualify. 'One little guy didn't qualify this time because his mother finds every way she can to work ? but they live in poverty, and he's so deserving, we will continue to fund him,' Barrie says. 'His trumpet has been the making of him.' It's an idea that every music service could replicate. But since the social and economic make-up of each borough is different, there is huge variation in this kind of initiative. 'Every decision about funding allocation has a knock-on effect somewhere else,' Barrie points out. Another 'shadow' scholar, 11-year-old Everest De Leon, whose parents are nurses from Nepal, has trumpet lessons with Bishal.
'To see them both grow in confidence has been wonderful,' says John Golightly, who says Bishal and Everest have just downloaded the Haydn and Neruda trumpet concertos because 'they thought they'd like to try them'. Golightly is dismissive of primary school recorder culture. 'I'm not a fan. If all you expect of them is recorder-playing, that's all they'll do. Give them a trumpet or a cello and expect professionalism and they'll respond.'
At the first MFYM awards ceremony at City Hall in December 100 children, clutching their instruments like talismans, turned out in their Sunday best. Antonio Kumar, a 10-year-old from Ealing, with hair groomed into a glossy cowlick, wore clothes specially bought for the occasion. His mother, Florabella, a single parent, was ecstatic. 'I wanted everything for my children, I never thought I wouldn't be able to give them opportunities.' Emmanuel Bugyei, 11, was dressed in a crisp white suit. Emmanuel is, according to his music teacher, Vicky Miller, 'without doubt the most talented musician and student that I have ever come across.' Emmanuel had been forced to give up his violin previously because his parents couldn't afford to pay for his lessons. Miller is convinced he will be in Haringey Young Musicians' Symphony Orchestra in a few years, having been given this chance to shine.
Squashed at the back, a child in a pink coat with a thick, messy ponytail wept noisily. It was all too much for 11-year-old Hannah Elms, an MFYM scholar from Richmond. But six months later, her brass teacher, Holly Bull, from Richmond Music Trust, describes a different child. 'I do think that at times Hannah
has found the struggle to play her cornet overwhelming because she had no prior musical knowledge at all. But the dedication and commitment she has shown has been extraordinary and I've seen her confidence in herself grow with every lesson.'
Hannah, an only child, lives with her father, Matthew, in a housing association maisonette where her music stand takes pride of place. Her mother died of liver cancer last summer. Matthew used to work as a private chauffeur but hasn't worked since she died. 'It's just me and Hannah ? I'm both mum and dad,' he says. 'My job is nurturing my daughter.' The walls of the Elms' maisonette are paper-thin, so sometimes Hannah practises in the park. Before she won her scholarship, her grandmother had paid for two terms of tuition at ?4 a lesson. But Hannah says she doesn't think she would have carried on without MFYM; it is the winning that has captured her, the power of others' belief in her. Dressed in her football kit and clutching her cornet, she says she doesn't fancy playing Ode to Joy, which Bull had suggested, so she toots the theme tune to EastEnders and a couple of bars of Le Can Can.
When their scholarship funding ends, the majority of these children will be 14. Is it long enough? 'It's enough time to capture their hearts,' says Sir John Baker, the MFYM chairman and former ENO chairman. 'We may not produce 1,000 concert pianists or virtuoso violinists, but getting together to make music is a profound experience that changes children's lives ? and that's what we set out to do.'
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The Thursday 12 July seminar ? in association with the Loan Market Association (LMA) ? is offered on a complimentary basis, will be hosted at Allen & Overy?s One Bishops Square offices, from 8am, at which the content and implication of three recent industry documents will be debated:
