Bringing great music to the youth of the region

"Our school is a richer place and the skills we have gained have been transferred into the wider school curriculum and activities"

Primary school Headteacher

"I like the project because I have learned about loads of other countries and it is developing my singing and music skills and it is really fun!"

Primary school pupil

Our History

Yorkshire Youth and Music began life in 1979 as a regional branch of Youth and Music, a London-based audience development agency subsidising tickets for young people to attend live music events.  In 1991 we became independent, and our core activities changed to music-making by young people, rather than for them. We are a registered charity and regularly funded by Arts Council England.

In 1995 Yorkshire Youth and Music was a music prize-winner in the prestigious Prudential Awards for the Arts.  In 1999 we won a large scale Millennium Festival Fund Award and received the region’s largest award from the New Opportunities Fund (Out-Of-School-Hours Learning) for Sounding Out.

How we work

We design projects which fit the needs of young people, in partnership with them, their teachers, parents and carers. We work in schools, nursery and pre-school settings, with youth and community groups.

We work in partnership with local or regional organisations, designing and building projects which meet particular needs. We take care to ensure that our work lasts in the organisations we work with – once we have finished our project, the music-making doesn’t stop. The young people involved in our projects take part in helping to shape and direct them according to their own musical needs and ideas; we don’t dictate what they will learn.

We work with excellent musicians from across the musical spectrum; popular and folk musicians, those who are classically trained, songwriters, percussionists, DJs and rappers. Musicians are chosen for projects according to the needs of the project and the young people we’re working with.