King’s Music Academy
Based in Friars Primary School, in the borough of Southwark, the award-winning King’s Music Academy offers free, after-school, small-group singing, instrumental and music theory training to pupils from seven local state primary schools. Classes run weekly throughout the academic year. They are funded by King’s College London and administered by Water City Music.
An experienced local primary music teacher, Mr. Jonathan Pix, runs the Academy, and he mentors the King’s music students to teach the pupils. The Academy was founded in 2017 by Senior Research Fellow Dr. Esther Cavett, Prof. Katherine Schofield, and Mr. Pix, and is currently managed by King’s PhD candidate and WCM trustee Javier Rivas. In 2018, the Academy won the prestigious King’s Award for Most Significant Commitment to Widening Participation and Social Mobility.
On an occasional basis, Academy pupils visit King’s to attend and perform with college ensembles like the King’s Chapel Choir. This encourages them to consider the possibility of entering higher education.
Annual programme evaluations have led to two peer-reviewed publications in the International Journal of Community Music, authored by Esther Cavett, Javier Rivas, and several Academy teachers: “Voices from Southwark: Reflections on a collaborative music teaching project in London in the age of COVID-19” and “’It’s like you’re an activist’: Sustainable Teaching Practices in a Music Outreach Project in London”.
