Leeds-based charity, Made with Music, has won an Outstanding Attitude Award this week for their programme of Mini-Gigs. The awards - run by the charity ,Attitude is Everything- celebrate excellence and innovation in live music accessibility.  Made with Music won the Nigel McCune DIY Access Award in memory of one of Attitude is Everything’s first Trustees and Board Officers. Made with Music is a charity that aims to open up access to music for families and young people, and is led by Hannah Dilworth and Kathryn Sturman. They have been established since 2012 and run sessions ..read more

Originally written by Kathryn for Leeds Disabled People's Organisation on 22 June 2018 It’s easy to dwell on the challenges of life as a disabled person, but an old colleague recently reminded me of all the positive things that have changed because of it. I now know which of my friends are the best at audio describing; it’s all to do with shared reference points and knowing your audience in my opinion - being prepared to be silly helps a lot in my case! This has helped me to discover the inner workings of my friends’ minds, but it’s mainly in my working life where I’ve noticed that changes tha ..read more

What a year we have had so far. Our last blog post was back in April and May this year where we launched ourselves into the first lockdown whilst trying to home school our kids and maintain a regular level of activity on social media. To be honest, it was exhausting but when you are running a small charity and you don’t want it to disappear, we both wanted to work hard to make sure that Made with Music would still exist once this is all over (whenever that may be…please be soon!) We both took some of August off, which was so welcome for so many reasons but we were getting really tired and bein ..read more

It's been a busy year for Made with Music and as the year comes to an end I felt I needed to put some thoughts down! Kathryn and I have been so grateful to so many people who support us and encourage us, it's often difficult to make decisions and keep on track when we want to say yes to everything that comes our way. We genuinely care about everyone we meet and work with but that doesn't always make for the best business model!! Shout out to our board who have been available for helping make decisions about what and who to prioritise, they've also done a great job with policy making. We've wor ..read more

Made with Music, an award-winning charity based in West Yorkshire, which provides accessible live music for families of all ages and abilities, has celebrated its 10th birthday with a family-friendly mini-gig at Brudenell Social Club, featuring local musicians Leeds City Stompers, Ubunye, Beth Mackay and Jenny Hobbins. The 10th birthday gig also featured songs written by and for children. These songs will be released as part of a new songbook containing eleven original songs, with multi-sensory activities to accompany them. The songbook will be given away for free to children and parents in h ..read more

Help us enter Give as you Live Online’s £10,000 Giveaway before 31st December 2022 Supporting Made with Music couldn’t be simpler this winter thanks to Give as you Live Online’s winter giveaway, and here’s how you can take part. Give as you Live Online are giving you the chance to earn a £10 bonus donation on top of the regular free donations you can raise by using their free shopping tool. When you sign up to support Made with Music on Give as you Live Online and complete 3 fund-raising shops by the end of the year, they’ll pay us a bonus £10 donation. Plus, when you use Give as you Live Onl ..read more

Made with Music has been a charity for almost a year now, with a brilliant team of musicians who work with us on a semi-regular basis, two thirds of which are women, and also a new board of trustees, four out of five of whom are women. Half the performers at our Mini-Gigs this year were women and our two directors are women. We’re trying to work towards gender balance from the both directions - women dominate early years and family work, whereas men dominate the music industry – and it’s important to us to have a diverse team. For International Women’s Day today though, we wanted to say thank ..read more

As things begin to re-open this week, we wanted to tell you what this means for Made with Music. The arts sector has been hugely impacted by Covid-19, that includes those who work in it and those who visit or take part in activities. There are certain things we will be doing and thinking about as we move forward. At Made with Music, we always want to make our work inclusive and accessible to as many people as we can and as things start to open up again, we want to recognise that for many of our families and followers, there will be worries and concerns. We will be taking some time off over sum ..read more

Made with Music, an award-winning charity based in West Yorkshire, which provides accessible live music for families of all ages and abilities, has reached record breaking online audiences during the Covid-19 outbreak. By taking its usual mini gigs, workshops, performances, and classes online, Made with Music has reached an average of more than 1,700 children, young people, mums, and dads every day since 17 March 2020* in countries all around the world including the USA and India. When Made with Music’s founders, Hannah Dilworth and Kathryn Sturman, learnt from friends in Italy and Spain that ..read more

How’s everyone doing? Well, quite a lot has changed since our last ‘What do we do all day?’ blog! We know every second email is about the impact of the virus and that it’s all a little overwhelming to say the least. But we still want to update you on how we’re trying to continue the charity’s work through the social distancing period. We’d also love your views and advice on what’s working and what’s not - it’s so important to stay in touch and we really miss everyone that we usually work with! So the last few weeks… We both have friends in Italy and Spain and through talking to them, we had an ..read more