Stockbridge Music Hub

The Stockbridge Music Hub is something unique and hopefully a model for other communities to use. Initially set up to help the neighbourhood come together after the isolation of the Covid pandemic it has now become a highly valued resource.

As a professional cellist and community music practitioner being given this opportunity to serve my community and fellow musicians has been a dream. I have been able to combine my life as a professional cellist with my job as a community musician – creating the Music Hub and working in schools and care homes.

I feel passionately that the role of a musician should be to serve the community in many ways – not only as a performer. Music is unique in the way it affects the body and mind both physiologically and psychologically – sharing experiences of listening or playing together can really change the way we feel and relate to each other.

Working in areas of conflict such the Balkans, Lebanon and more recently Ukraine I know first-hand the power music can have and it is a joy to create a place closer to home where I can share this.

The Music Hub, in collaboration with Stockbridge Church, is the base for all types of activities and events and I hope there is something for everyone! Performers from Jacqui Dankworth, Hannah Rarity and Steven Osborne have enjoyed the warm acoustic, excellent piano and intimate setting. It is not only the highest calibre musicians that play at the Hub – the weekly Cello Choir (pic below) is open to all ages and abilities and there are classes for children on the autistic spectrum in collaboration with the charity Hear My Music.

Over the past three years I have taken the work the of Hub into Stockbridge Primary School, Braeburn House and collaborated with Edinburgh Academy and Broughton Community School. On the first Friday of each month professional musicians from all genres, - jazz, traditional and classical present lunchtime concerts that cost nothing to attend and there will be sandwiches available. Beginning in June there will be a new series ‘Jazz-in-Stockbridge’ that offers a platform for some of the talented musicians who have lost their home at the Jazz Bar due to its recent sudden closure.

The three years of funding which Amati Global Investors pledged in September 2021 is now coming to an end so we are looking for other sources to ensure the future of the Hub. Well over 1000 people have enjoyed the inclusive environment of the

Hub since it began and with numbers growing steadily it would be a huge loss if it went

the way of the Jazz Bar, Summerhall, the Filmhouse and the Theatre Workshop.

If you are in position to offer sponsorship, patronage or a donation to ensure the Hub

can continue beyond February 2025 please do get in touch via the website.

Looking to the future with positivity I would love to hear your thoughts and requests

about musical activities and events that you would like to see. Ideas in the pipeline

include ‘Music Makers’ – a group for adults with additional needs and their care-

workers, ‘Tutti’ a drop-in for anyone with an instrument to play and create music

together, ‘Sharing Music’ for refugees to share their musical cultures and ‘Stockbridge’s Got Talent’.