At NYJO, we are committed to ensuring that every young person, regardless of their background or location, has access to high-quality music education. Through the national projects in our Widening Access programme, we work alongside local music providers, educators, and young musicians to help remove some of these barriers to access, foster creativity, and develop the next generation of jazz artists.
At the start of 2025 we began a new strand of this work in Manchester, delivered in partnership with One Education Music and Jazz North. This project opened with a CPD session for Manchester-based teachers, alongside workshops with music ensembles in 6 secondary schools, all delivered by NYJO Resident MD Ahnansé. These sessions were a chance to inspire local educators with new ways of approaching jazz education, as well as getting young people excited by the possibilities of improvisation and jazz as a genre.
“I’ve learnt a lot about improvising and how to do it, as I had never done this before. There was a very supportive atmosphere created which made it a lot less daunting doing the improvising on your own. I learnt how easy it is to improvise as long as you know the key and a few notes to make a nice catchy tune!”
Tilly, School Workshop Participant
“There was a really relaxed atmosphere in the CPD session for teachers, and most of all it was fun. Music should be fun!”
John Rudden, Music Teacher at Co-op Academy Manchester
Following this, we were incredibly grateful to Band on the Wall who hosted us for a four day summer project in their beautiful Manchester learning space. This was for young people aged 13 – 18 who were interested in exploring the world of jazz, experimenting with improvisation, and experiencing playing live music with others. Some young people joined us from the earlier schools-based sessions, alongside a number of musicians from across the local area who were brand-new to NYJO’s work.
The first day of this project was led by Ahnansé, with the remaining three days led by a brilliant team of our NYJO Emerging Professional musicians (Miles Pillinger, Fee Buckton, and Benji Arnold). Over the four days, they explored a range of music, stretching from Charles Mingus to Bill Withers, before pulling everything together to create a performance set in Band on the Wall’s main venue for a hugely supportive audience of family and friends.
“My highlight from this project had to be when one of the young people brought in a song they had been working on at home, and we did it in the room with everyone; his face just lit up and he was really happy to hear it like that! It was just so nice to see him excited about the music and enjoying everyone playing his tune together.”
Fee Buckton, NYJO Emerging Professional
As Fee reflected above, it was very special to see the young people on this project enjoy playing together and celebrating the connection that they had found through music. A lot of these young people don’t have access to regular opportunities to play jazz with other musicians, due to issues such as rurality and county-wide differences in access to music provision across schools. For many of them, therefore, this moment where they could hear themselves becoming part of a larger ensemble sound was hugely powerful:
“I loved being around other musicians, hearing their styles, and learning from how they express themselves. It reminded me why I love music in the first place, that raw connection, that little spark when the band plays and your voice sits right in the middle of it.”
Omar, Summer Project Participant
Creating safe learning spaces is a hugely important part of how we work; curating environments where young people are supported to engage with one another positively, learn to celebrate each other’s successes, and not to be too hard on one another, and indeed themselves, when things don’t go to plan:
“I’ve always known I was my own worst critic, but this project really showed me how harsh I can be to myself when something doesn’t go perfectly. Here I learnt that even when things don’t go to plan, I can still keep going, still perform, and still be received with kindness. That’s something I hadn’t truly felt until now.”
Omar, Summer Project Participant
“Projects like this make music more accessible and inclusive. Not every young person gets the chance to explore jazz or improvisation, and NYJO’s work helps fill that gap. These experiences also help young musicians grow in confidence, creativity, and collaboration – all skills that go beyond music and are valuable in life more broadly.”
Ahnansé, NYJO Resident MD
As Ahnansé highlights here, collaboration and connection should sit at the heart of jazz education, as musicians learn how to better listen to one another, weave their sounds together, and bounce off of one another’s ideas. In this way, music-making can be a powerful way of showing young people how to connect with kindness and respect.
“I care deeply about music and performing, and this experience has made me even more determined to keep growing, trust my instincts, and find my voice, both literally and creatively.”
Omar, Summer Project Participant
As they work towards finding the voice that they want to lead with in today’s world, we can’t think of a more important message to leave young people with.
If you would like to find out more about any of our National Widening Access offer, please get in touch today at [email protected]!