Nucleo celebrates 10th anniversary

Florence Lockheart
Friday, June 16, 2023

The music for social action project will bring 250 young musicians to Opera Holland Park for an anniversary concert on 20 June

With 52% of its students living in the lowest 20% on the national Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, Nucleo provides all its participants with instruments for free, along with a programme of activities (Image courtesy of Nucleo)
With 52% of its students living in the lowest 20% on the national Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, Nucleo provides all its participants with instruments for free, along with a programme of activities (Image courtesy of Nucleo)

Opera Holland Park will next week (20 June) welcome 250 young musicians involved in music for social action initiative, The Nucleo Project for a concert celebrating 10 years of the project. The young musicians are all participants in Nucleo’s immersive free programme which aims to empower young people to enact change through music-making.

The 25 students set to perform next week will represent Nucleo’s 400 young participants who attend the programme from over 100 different schools. With 52% of its students living in the lowest 20% on the national Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index, Nucleo provides all its participants with instruments for free, along with a programme of activities based at its North Kensington Hub.

Nucleo founder and chief executive Lucy Maguire said: ‘Having started out with four kids, we now have 400 (with another 260 on the waitlist), and many of the young musicians who will be performing for the 10th anniversary have really grown up with Nucleo. We’re very proud of this community, and the students have been working really hard so we’re very much looking forward to this performance; we can’t wait to share it with the audience and celebrate our 10 years together.”

Nucleo was founded in North Kensington 2013, but in 2022 the project expanded beyond its London base to take on the running of two national initiatives - the Young Leaders Programme and the Instrument Donation Bank – as part of the Sistema Europe Network.

Next week’s anniversary concert will feature Nucleo students alongside guest soloists Felicity Buckland (mezzo soprano), Hamish McLaren (countertenor), Caroline Taylor (soprano), Monwabisi Lindi (tenor) and Kamohelo Tsotesi (baritone) performing a wide range of repertoire including What a Beautiful Life, a work composed by Nucleo graduate Daniel Jurado Hoshino.