With school budgets strained and an increased focus on core subjects, particularly since Covid, time for creative subjects such as music is decreasing. The national curriculum states that primary pupils should “appreciate and understand a wide range of high-quality live & recorded music”, but in practice with limited budgets and expertise in schools, this is hard to deliver. This is particularly the case in smaller, rural schools where high transport costs make travel to concerts difficult.

Quartet on the Road will bring quality live music to the schools who would most struggle to access it via other routes. Gloucestershire is a large rural county, with some very small schools and long travel distances to major cities and cultural centres. The string quartet is the ultimate portable musical unit, and the Carducci String Quartet have many years’ experience of taking live music into schools and delivering sessions to inspire young children with a love of music.