From 2023, the children and young people of the Copenhagen Municipality will have professional concerts on their schedule. This was decided on Friday when a broad majority agreed on the new municipal budget.
Director of Levende Musik i Skolen, Gitte Abildtrup, is cheering at the prospect of including 41,000 Copenhagen primary school students in the concert concept:
“We are beyond excited, I can reveal. It is a happy end to a long process, in which several parties – both politicians and strong school and cultural forces in Copenhagen – have helped to put Levende Musik I Skolen (red: Live Music in the School) on the agenda.
The decision rounds off a great year for LMS. Earlier this year, the municipalities of Ringkøbing-Skjern, Frederikshavn, Kolding and Holstebro also entered into an agreement to subscribe to LMS School Concerts, so we are more than satisfied," says Gitte Abildtrup from LMS School Concerts.
The proposal was supported in advance by several actors, and in the end, it was group chairman and member of the Economic Committee Christopher Røhl Andersen from Radikale Venstre who got it included in the final budget. He elaborates on support for LMS School Concerts as follows:
"For us, it is a clear political priority that culture should be closer to children. One of the goals for us in Radikale Venstre with running the municipality’s culture and leisure services is to make Copenhagen the children's culture capital. The school concerts are an obvious initiative to nurture the curiosity of Copenhagen's children. We hope that this can be the first step in a larger development towards a stronger music offer for the children. It is important that they get good musical experiences early on, so music can follow them for the rest of their lives either as concert guests, amateur musicians in rehearsal rooms or musicians on stage.”
The Municipality of Copenhagen joins a large club with its support for Live Music in the School's concert scheme, as there are already 67 municipalities that have signed a contract with the national competence centre. With Copenhagen on board, LMS comes a good step closer to achieving the vision of annual concerts for all primary school children.
__
Translated by the JMI team on Sep 19th 2022. Link to original article: https://lms.dk/lms-i-kbh/?fbclid=IwAR0D4guKapiw6p07fCX01RvB_Jw_aqppavz7nH_p1xrAg31e-6HJPNjY3aA