In the lead up to the 2020 Piano Festival, Hastings Piano will host a series of inspirational workshops with NYJO associates in three local secondary schools: Hastings Academy, Ark Alexandra and St Richards. This work has been made possible by the generous support of the Isabel Blackman Foundation.

Each school will receive 3 visits from a group of NYJO practitioners who will work with children of varied musical ability, developing young musicians’ skills and musical confidence. At the end of the project the children from all three schools will join together for a massed rehearsal ahead of a concert/sharing session for other students. These workshops will address the fundamentals of jazz performance practise such as; feel, ensemble skills and improvisation. All young musicians will learn tunes by ear, explore harmonic possibilities and gain confidence improvising.

National Jazz Youth Orchestra: From a single jazz orchestra of young professional musicians founded in 1965, NYJO has grown to be a multidimensional organisation, working in jazz education at all levels all around the country, and offering alternative routes to young musicians who want to play jazz. Our Jazz Orchestra has helped launch the careers of many of the UK’s most-admired jazz singers and instrumentalists: Amy Winehouse, Guy Barker, Laura Jurd, Yazz Ahmed, Kwabs, Stan Sulzmann and Gwilym Simcock, and remains the gateway to the profession for many stars of the UK jazz scene and countless musical theatre and session musicians.