The purpose of Northumberland Creative & Performing Arts is to enhance the quality of life in Northumberland by increasing the quantity, range and quality of creative and performing arts available to all young people.

Our organisation was established as a Music Service over 60 years ago, providing instrumental tuition, youth orchestras, education concerts / workshops and ensemble opportunities for the children of Northumberland. Over recent years, we have expanded our service, and now include:

· Ten youth ensembles
· Large scale instrumental and vocal projects for school partnerships
· A wide range of curriculum projects and events
· Collaborative events with other arts agencies
· Training for school teachers, classroom assistants and our tutors
· Instrument hire and maintenance
· Gifted and Talented weekends
· Musical events for special needs pupils
· Extended Schools clubs
· A thriving KS2 Wider Opportunities Programme, with our tutors delivering whole class tuition in over 140
· schools during 2008 - 9.

While we have always supported and developed mixed arts events, we have recently expanded our education provision to include other arts disciplines, and we are now starting to provide a wide variety of dance, drama and mixed arts activities to schools. During the last year we have particularly specialised in traditional arts, re-introduced playground singing games in many schools, and expanded our delivery of arts traditions from all over the world.

We always make sure that our services are of a very high standard. Our tutors are consistently praised by schools for their dedication and expertise, which reflects the ethos of quality, caring and excellence that we aim to convey to all our users.

On the Music Services website you will find information on every aspect of our business. You can also browse through the links to find out more about arts activities across the region. To get in touch with any of our experts, please contact our administrative team on 01670 533526, or send an email to: Lesley.Scott@northumberland.gov.uk