The Music Workshop Company Blog 

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs. 
 
To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk 

Posts tagged “MUSIC WORKSHOP”

When the Watford Jazz Junction was founded in 2020, its festival put inclusion and mental wellbeing at its heart. (It’s one reason we at the Music Workshop Company didn’t hesitate when we were asked to be involved, and we’re delighted to be back this year delivering a special workshop for young people aged 4-12). 
 
Each year, Watford Jazz Junction works to ensure its events represent the various communities it serves, offering people of all backgrounds a way to connect and express themselves. With the organisers busy preparing a diverse programme for 2024, Chris Newstead, the festival’s Director and Founder, took time out to tell us more about the ethos behind the event. 
 
 
(Image: participants at the Music Workshop Company's 2023 workshop at Watford Jazz Junction.) 
This month, music psychologist Dr Dawn Rose tells us about Songlines for Parkinson’s, an innovative project she and her research team have been working on with The Music Workshop Company’s Artistic Director, Maria Thomas.  
 
Dawn explains how the course offers a new way of using music to help people with Parkinson’s to manage some of their symptoms. 
This month The Music Workshop Company celebrates 20 years in Music Education. Having started as a vague idea for a service that helped schools and musicians work together, MWC has worked with schools, community groups and businesses from Anglesey to East Anglia, Shetland to Southampton, working with hundreds of thousands of participants.  
 
MWC’s Artistic Director and Founder, Maria Thomas, reflects on lessons learnt over the last 20 years and gives her top tips for creating a successful workshop. 
 
Image by Ann H, Pexels 
The last 15 months have been difficult for musicians, with many losing their usual income streams, unable to perform, unable to engage with others through live music, whether as performer or teacher. 
 
As the live music scene, both in the professional and amateur realms, gradually re-opens, we reflect on our love of live music. 
 
Image: Eric Nopanen, Unsplash 
The first piano was made some time during the late 1600s or early 1700s by the Italian musical instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori.  
 
These early instruments were called clavicembalo col piano e forte, which translates as harpsichord with soft and loud.  
 
This description is how the piano got its full name; the pianoforte. 
This month marks the 14th birthday of the Music Workshop Company. To celebrate, Maria Thomas, Founder and Artistic Director, tells us about her inspiraton, highlights and vision for the future. Alongside her work at MWC, Maria is Programme Leader for the Music Industry Management Programme at the University of Hertfordshire. Her specialism is entrepreneurship and small business. 
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