A partnership between Wiltshire Council’s music service, Wiltshire Music Centre and Wiltshire Youth Arts Partnership have been awarded £200,000.

Wiltshire Music Connect is one of five UK initiatives to have been awarded Music Partnership funding from the Department of Children, Schools and Families this year. The funding will give more young people in Wiltshire more opportunities to take part in music activities on a scale that hasn’t been possible before.

Over the year, 400 workshops and 12 performances involving 4,000 children and young people will take place. Wiltshire Music Connect covers all ages from pre-school to adulthood and aims to inspire a lifelong passion for all music.

The workshops will range from tots performing a Farmyard Suite to teenagers working with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Young people with learning disabilities will also get an opportunity to create music while young adults will have a chance to use the latest music technologies.

Valerie Hayward, of Wiltshire Council’s music service, said: “We are thrilled to have been singled out as one of only five projects nationally to win this funding and believe that it is going to have a huge effect, not only on the children and young people involved, but in the way we are able to approach music making opportunities in Wiltshire in the future.”