A transformative singing programme, delivered free to hundreds of children in and around Amersham
Our three-year plan is to provide 25 weekly sessions led by qualified and inspiring musicians and built into the timetables of five schools per year, with all materials, music, musicians and support provided. The programme will run from September each year, and culminate in a participating schools coming together as part of the festival’s spring season the following April.
Fundamentally, ‘The Winds of the World’ is a set of four song collections: each one contains 7-9 narrative songs published in engaging format, with lots of supporting material. Every book tells a story from a different part of the world using purpose-made songs perfectly written for children to sing, regardless of musical ability.
It’s more than that though: ‘The Winds’ is also a template for an amazing experience for young people; these uniquely brilliant songs can be a gateway for children to find their voice, to discover music, to express complex ideas and perspectives, and ultimately to engage with their innate creativity in a very practical and empowering way. Written by expert educationalists Kirsten Juul Seidenfaden and Cecilie Eken, ‘The Winds’ have been highly successful in Denmark where they have encouraged thousands of schoolchildren to sing, create, and enjoy expressing themselves through music.
There are many organisations doing fantastic work in creating spaces and projects for children to engage with the arts, but the simple fact is that in general access to high-quality practical music-making for all young people regardless of means is as low as it has ever been. Successive governments have noted the huge benefits that practical music making can have across the curriculum, on literacy, numeracy, attainment, happiness, attendance, social skills, emotional development and more, but schools budgets have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed again and in many cases the arts are the first to face the axe. This Festival can’t fix the deeper national problems of severe lack of investment in music education in schools, but we want to do what we can to offer more to our young people within our sphere.
This programme will engage hundreds of children in regular musical activity: developing ideas, sounds, listening, musicality, creative and collaborative skills, and much more.
We have committed to putting a significant part of the festival’s education budget towards this project, and we are grateful to those who have already committed time and money to it including the Shanly Foundation, the Arts Society, and The Orthodontic Specialist, our partner schools in year one, the support of Chiltern Music Academy, Bucks Music Trust, Chiltern Music Therapy, the Danish publishers Dansk Sang and the composer Kirsten Juul Seidenfaden.
We are well on our way to raising the £60,000 we need to cover the full three year programme in 15 schools in total, but we’re not there yet. Any donations towards this transformative project will be gratefully received, and go directly to providing excellent practical music-making and performance experiences to KS2-age children in local state primary schools.
This project closed unsuccessfully on 31st December 2025