Back in May, Music24’s Graeme Davis sat down with journalism graduate and Beyond Sound podcast host, Yasmin Cox, to chat about music therapy interventions and myths.
We are pleased to share this interesting podcast now and hope you enjoy listening. The podcast, What Is Music Therapy? A Chat With Graeme Davis, is found below or on the music platform Spotify.
Our 10th Anniversary Celebration Evening held at Venue 360 in Luton on 29th June 2024, was a huge success. We were delighted that so many came to help us celebrate at what was an incredibly joyous occasion.
It wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of our event sponsors, Love Luton, Venue 360, Luton Point, C&M Events, Rayner Essex and Silvertoad. These all helped us to create this wonderful opportunity for so many people in the Music24 family to come together to mark a decade of Music24. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts for making the occasion possible.
On behalf of everyone at Music24, we would also like to thank Deputy Lieutenant, Hannan Ali, for joining us and for taking the time to meet and talk to so many of our guests; our Patron, Brindley Sherratt and his wife, Chris, for a spellbinding performance that enraptured everyone in the room and also cast members from Bedford Marianettes, who opened the evening for us with songs from the musicals. Their infectious energy and enthusiasm really helped to set the scene for a glorious evening.
We’re pleased to announce that we raised £806 on the night thanks to many local supporters, businesses and attractions who donated some incredible prizes for our raffle. Thank you to everyone who contributed some amazing prizes including Royal Opera House tickets, Folk by the Oak Festival tickets, family tickets to Wrest Park, Woburn Safari Park and Knebworth House – all super experiences for our wonderful guests to look forward to.
Our event volunteers who kindly donated their time to help out on the night, also played a huge part in helping to make the evening a success, from car park monitoring and seating guests to serving food and ensuring the AV ran without a hitch - they were all so brilliant – things wouldn’t have been the same without them. Thank you to everyone who helped make it such a great night.
In true Music24 spirit, we sang and danced until the very end.
Thank you for the music and thank you everyone, for making this the best 10 years ever!
Watch this short video highlighting some of the event’s best bits!
We are delighted to be facilitating a series of free intergenerational workshops this summer with our ‘Music24 Connections’ project.
Bringing together elderly people with Dementia and families with early years children, these free workshops will be held every Monday afternoon in Farley Hill in Luton from 29th July.
Booking by telephone or by email in advance is essential as the workshops will attract a high level of interest and spaces are limited. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the duration of the workshops. Our flyer below gives more details about these events.
Hoping to see many of you soon!
Ten years ago, we embarked on a mission to change lives through music. We are so proud of what we have achieved in a decade. Our work is now reaching more people every day throughout Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and we look forward to many more years of making life-changing music with incredible people.
We desperately wanted to mark our 10th Anniversary with something special. On Saturday 29th June, at Venue 360 in Luton, we will be hosting an evening of celebration for our service users, their carers, our staff, volunteers and trustees. The event will see many people from the Music24 community across Beds and Herts coming together to enjoy good company and to celebrate the last decade with speeches, delicious food, a raffle and, of course, live music and a DJ to provide an opportunity to celebrate in true style and party the night away.
Due to the support of our incredible sponsors, we have been able to offer all of our guests a subsidised ticket fee. Tickets are available for purchase online now or in person at one of our sessions
If you would like to attend, please contact the Office at info@music24.org.uk or here and we will send you the private link to our secure ticket provider and more information.
Alternatively, ask a member of the team in person at your next session.
The deadline for ticket purchases is 10th June 2024.
This event has been made possible by the very generous support of some amazing businesses and organisations in our community. We are very grateful to the following sponsors who are helping to make our event special:
Our Lead Sponsor, Love Luton, is the partnership of businesses helping to bring the Luton community together whilst promoting confidence and pride in the town. Music24 has community, inclusivity, equality and diversity at the heart of our work and we are therefore thrilled to have Love Luton’s support.
Our host for the evening, is the non-profit organisation at the heart of the Luton community, Venue 360. We are very excited to have the support of the team at what is Luton’s leading events, sport, fitness and leisure complex.
The Mall is Luton’s premier shopping centre. Located in the heart of the town since 1972, the centre has been helping to promote the work of our charity since 2023. We are delighted to have the further support of The Mall for our 10th Anniversary at this important moment in our history.
With a passion for fun, Claire and Mark are the fantastic people behind Bedfordshire’s party décor company, C&M Events and new shop, Chic Celebrations in Ampthill. Their generous donation of time, dedication and creative input, has meant that our event will look amazing as well as have a few fun features to enjoy too. We would like to thank them for all their support.
Silvertoad is an award-winning creative marketing agency in Luton offering services in branding and web design and development. We are so happy that they are helping us to realise our dream event and we would like to thank the team for their kind support.
Based in London and St Albans, Rayner Essex is a friendly accountancy practice with a wide portfolio of expertise from Tax services to Payroll, Accounting services and more. We are delighted that they have chosen to support us once again.
Raw Power Management are recent supporters of Music24. An artist representation company, they manage a jaw-dropping portfolio of artists and bands regularly featured on the live music circuit both nationally and internationally. We are very grateful for their involvement with our charity and look forward to developing our partnership further over the next few months.
Tickets to the Royal Opera House, Folk by the Oak at Hatfield House and Woburn Safari Park, are just some of the wonderful raffle prizes and other goodies that will be available to win at the event on the evening of the celebration, along with many other memorable prizes which have been generously donated by other supporters too. More will be revealed in due course.
Keep an eye on our website or follow us on social media for more updates.
It’s not just all about music, as a conscientious charity in so many ways, we are also aware of the environmental impact our day-to-day work has. We have been developing our Environmental Policy and with this, exploring ways in which Music24 can operate as sustainably as possible in order to reduce the impact we have on the environment.
There is no better time to do this than NOW! Our pledge is to strive towards keeping our carbon footprint in check. Taking this forward our aim is to:
· Reduce our carbon emissions by encouraging car-sharing whenever possible and to source and use local talent.
· Raise awareness and encourage our community to think “green” through music, songs and discussion.
· Honour the environmentally conscious practices in place at the session venues we hire in each location.
We have embraced the opportunity to be as proactive as possible and recently surveyed all the venues we use in the different locations throughout Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. We felt this was an important exercise in gathering information about how we can support the sustainable efforts currently practiced by them. From community centres to theatres and churches, our venues gave us some really useful feedback and also told us of the challenges they face. Here are some examples of the feedback we received:
Recycling - This is a big part of our venues’ waste management, with glass and cardboard recycling facilities at some. Some strongly discourage the use of single use plastics. Some, however, are economically challenged in this respect, reporting that councils charge large amounts to collect extra waste and is therefore just not financially feasible for the venue to do so.
Heating - If any of our venues are lucky enough to have access to a council climate change grant, improvements to heating and insulation such as secondary glazing for windows, draft excluders and roof insulation, can have a very positive, long-term impact. Some try limiting the use of electricity as much as possible for heating/air cooling. Some of our venues have high ceilings and these are difficult to heat efficiently.
Lighting – LED lighting features in some of our venues. Hirers like us, are encouraged to switch off unnecessary lights and to turn off lights when they leave the building.
Awareness – Some venues feel that they ‘do what they can’ to practice effective energy saving. Some feel that hirers don’t respond responsibly to signs and polite requests which must be very disappointing, despite their best efforts.
What we can do to help our venues – Use recycling facilities if available or take our recycling home with us. Keep doors closed when the heating is on. Turn off lights and electrical equipment when they’re not in use or needed. Shop smart and steer clear of single use plastics.
From recycling to keeping our carbon footprint in check, Music24 takes responsibility for it’s duty of care for the planet and to help others to do so too by raising awareness and encouraging our community to be proactive in reducing our environmental impact.
Music24's team are showing love for our charity by attempting the colossal #ThreePeaksChallenge to mark our 10th Anniversary this year.
This is the biggest and hardest team challenge we have taken on yet. With determination and ambition helping to overcome the aching legs and tired feet, training is currently underway in the little spare time that the team possess!
Please wish the team luck and consider supporting their fundraising efforts by donating today! Every penny counts.
For more information, challenge updates and to support, click here.
Way back in April 2014, Music24 arrived with a strum, a beat and a small handful of harmonious voices. Before long, our vision for a world where everyone can be a musician was realised.
Our mission to change lives through music became a reality and the ‘Music24 Family’ started to grow. From the very first sessions, made possible by a small number of local funding pots, to the support we now receive from major national funding institutions such as Arts Council England and The National Lottery Community Fund, we have been going from strength to strength over the last ten years - honing our skills, building our team, finding our niche and discovering our uniqueness... even a pandemic couldn’t hold us back!
We are so proud of what we have achieved since our early days back in 2014. Our work is now reaching more and more people every day and they benefit hugely from the opportunities we provide throughout Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. With ambitious hearts and a few new songs in the pipeline, we are thrilled to be celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year and are ready to take on the next ten years!
We would like to thank EVERYONE that has shown their love and support to us throughout the years. Especially our funders, donors, trustees, staff and volunteers for helping us to deliver life-changing music;, it would not be possible without all of you!
The BIGGEST Thank you’s go to our incredibly amazing service users. You are the glorious, courageous and admirable people that we have the immense pleasure of making music with every day. You help us to create the musical landscape from which we all feel connection and acceptance. Your willingness to try and creative fearlessness is second to none. Thank you for your love, trust, openness and for letting us in. The connection through music is what crafts the wonderful ‘space’ to which we all belong and it’s the reason Music24 exists at all. We are so lucky to have music and share it in the way we do!
Cheers to a decade of Making Music Matter! We look forward to everything that the next ten years will bring and we hope it will be just as exciting, if not more!
- Teela & Graeme, Co-Founders of Music24
This year is an exciting milestone in the history of Music24. Our 10th Anniversary will be marked with special events and projects throughout 2024, including a Celebration Evening to be held on Saturday 29th June.
We are incredibly pleased that this event is being made possible through the generous support of our Lead Sponsor, Love Luton, which is a partnership of local, socially-minded businesses helping to bring the Luton community together whilst promoting confidence and pride in the town. Love Luton aligns with our ethos as community, inclusivity, equality and diversity are at the heart of Music24's work. We are therefore thrilled to have Love Luton's support - thank you!
More information about the event will be available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for updates!
