According to Arts Council England, there are six In Harmony programmes (since 2008) across England, serving thousands of children most in need. Participating schools, working with professional organisations, commit curriculum hours and after-school time each week to ensemble music-making.
I met up with Jacqui Cameron, Education Director of Opera North (ON), who has long experience of In Harmony having worked also at the Sage Gateshead, and with Stephen Laidlaw, the In Harmony Lead at ON and a cellist and teacher on the programme. Laidlaw co-developed the curriculum, resources and lesson strategies.
In Harmony ON started in 2012, with Windmill Primary School in Leeds. Since then it's absorbed five more primary schools, across Leeds and Halifax, and one secondary school, growing organically: ‘We never tended to go out and look for schools’, explains Laidlaw; ‘they came to us in a way that was manageable and sustainable.’ Schools saw and learnt from each other.
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