In July 2025, we had the opportunity to take our ‘First Time Jazz’ Tour on the road again, bringing the magic of live jazz to secondary schools across the Humber region. These tours are a key part of our NYJO Learning offer, introducing young people to the world of jazz in both a fun and accessible way.
Our band of Emerging Professional musicians visited secondary schools across the local area, where they played live jazz music, engaging students in discussions about the genre and giving them the chance to be part of the band.
Our ‘First Time Jazz’ tours are a celebration of music, diversity, and opportunity, showing young people that jazz is for everyone, no matter their background.
This year, the band featured 5 NYJO Emerging Professional musicians across the four performance days; Olivia Cuttill (trumpet), Lauren Breen (sax), Dhiraj Kainth (guitar), Tamir Smith (bass) and Miles Pillinger (drums). They performed at 8 schools across 4 local areas linked under the Humber Music Hub umbrella; Hull, North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, and East Ridings.
Across the 8 schools that we visited, we reached over 1,100 young people. 64% of the young people surveyed after the tour had never seen live jazz music beforehand and 29% had never seen any form of live music before!
“I enjoyed all of the musicians talking about their backstory to get where they are. It has inspired me to maybe take interest in playing an instrument.”
William, Audience Member
One of the band members reflected afterwards on how rewarding it was to see the young people actively engaging with the music and connecting with the musicians on stage who looked like them:
“I hope that the young people were inspired to start listening to jazz or to pick up an instrument. I think it’s very important to have role models who look like you, and I hope that some of the young women came away from the sessions feeling that jazz is also for them too.”
Lauren Breen, NYJO Emerging Professional Musician
It’s so clear that our band’s love for jazz transferred out from them to the audience, letting the young people see the positivity and joy that music has brought into our Emerging Professionals lives:
“It was really fun and inspired me to do what makes me happy, and that there are no limits to what we can do.”
George, Audience Member
“I enjoyed the fact that all the people performing together felt like they were family to each other.”
Ethan, Audience Member
It’s a privilege to see our musicians step into these role-model positions with both confidence and respect for what it means to be an ambassador for change in young people’s lives. The connections made and the music shared will hopefully stay with everyone involved for a long time.
It was a true testament to the power of jazz to unite, inspire, and bring joy in unexpected ways.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our National Widening Access Programme offer, get in touch today at [email protected].