South Yorkshire mayor launches new ‘bigger and better’ music hub

The new South Yorkshire music hub – funded by Arts Council England (ACE) – is formed by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) and the four existing hubs in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

As part of the agreement, SYMCA will receive an additional £600k capital grant from the Department of Education (DoE) “to invest in new musical instruments, equipment and technology tailored to the needs of children and young people in South Yorkshire, including those with special educational needs and disabilities”.

South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the music service will bring together “the four music hubs right across South Yorkshire to be even bigger and even better”.

He said: “The funding is coming from Arts Council England to help those music services to work together, to access equipment, to access education, to help share that with the whole of South Yorkshire and do even more than they do right now.

“There are some brilliant music services in South Yorkshire, we’ve got some brilliant musical talent in South Yorkshire and we need to make sure that both of those things are brought together so we can carry on giving music to the world.”

The launch event at Barnsley Civic today (September 4) was attended by dozens of people in the industry – musicians, music teachers, and people who have been involved in music hubs.

Mr Coppard said the music hub would help young people to express themselves through music, they can learn a new skill and do something different outside of their everyday so he thought “it is really important for South Yorkshire and young people, in particular”.