Music Matters

Award winning musical duo Travelling by Tuba visited the Willow Primary School, in Woodhouse Park as part of a tour of 25 schools in England.

Sponsored by Manchester Airport Group (MAG), Chris Cranham and Stewart Death aim to encourage children to appreciate music and even take up learning a musical instrument by showing them that music is fun – whether playing or just listening.

Travelling by Tuba showed off some of their weird and wonderful instruments, including their Swiss Alpine Horn, African Kudu Horns, Sousaphone and even their famous ‘exploding Tuba’. There is always plenty of audience participation throughout the concert – a Travelling by Tuba trademark.

The whole project will see the pair visit 25 schools near the four Airports owned by MAG: East Midlands, Humberside, Bournemouth and Manchester.

The two musicians have been working together for eighteen years. As well as performing in over 200 schools every year, Travelling by Tuba has a busy concert schedule. They have toured in America, Canada, Europe and performed at The Barbican, The National Theatre, St Davids Hall, The Bridgewater Hall and The Royal Northern College of Music. The group was recently featured on Channel 4 as part of their music for schools programme.

Jonathan Bailey, External Affairs Director for the Manchester Airport Group, said

“We have been strong supporters of the arts in the regions for over ten years and are one of the largest art sponsors in the UK, allocating a share of our profits to arts sponsorship each year. Through our arts sponsorship programme we work with organisations like Travelling by Tuba to encourage the development of arts both nationally and in the regions in which our airports are based. We have a longstanding relationship with Travelling by Tuba and we have worked together on a number of community initiatives to promote music to young people in an exciting and innovative way.”