‘Shape of You’ singer Ed Sheeran has just launched a new Foundation to support music education around the UK. The Ed Sheeran Foundation will provide inclusive and high quality music education in the nation, with a special focus on disadvantaged areas where the arts are often overlooked and less funded in academia. To launch the foundation, Sheeran will be visiting schools in the areas of Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh and Belfast.
A BPI survey carried out in 2019 noted that schools situated in poorer communities offer little to no music education, and this is something that the Ed Sheeran Foundation aims to focus on and improve. The government has limited the funds reserved for art education drastically in the last decade, resulting in less and less children exposed to the power of music and prevented from discovering their talent. The survey had revealed that most schools in deprived areas offer no lessons or instruments availability to interested students, and only 12% of these have an orchestra, compared to an 85% of independent schools that, on the other hand, do have it. Upon revealing the results of the 2019 survey, BPI CEO Geoff Taylor had expressed his concern, saying:
“This inequality risks depriving our culture of future talents as diverse as Adele, Stormzy and Sheku Kanneh-Mason”
Sheeran himself revealed that music education was an important part of his life growing up and shaped his career; he said:
“Music education has shaped who I am. I’ve always enjoyed playing music, and it’s led to some of the best moments of my life.”
The Foundation will run alongside pre-existing art and music organisations, for example the Cardiff Sound Progression, whose founder has spoken about their workshops while discussing the new foundation.
“Our young people come from diverse backgrounds across Cardiff and enjoy creating music in various genres from Afrobeats to Indie. Our weekend workshops serve as safe, inclusive spaces that unite communities – but without additional investment, we risk losing this and the incredible talent they nurture.”
Everyone, from artists to CEOs in the music industry agree that music education needs more funding, and schools need to be more aware of the importance of teaching artistic subjects. Last year, Sheeran had revealed in a podcast with Theo Von that he had begun funding artistic subjects at his local high school after discussing with his former teacher how little funding was given to the school across every artistic subject. Sheeran revealed that he built a recording studio and gave the school proper instruments, and that upon seeing the students’ improvement he decided to start funding schools in his county. That is where the Ed Sheeran Foundation began.
Sheeran has always been very supportive of charities and supporting independent music in the UK. He opened up about supporting grass roots venues back in 2022, discussing how some of the best gigs of his career had taken place in smaller and independent venues and how these were essential to UK music.
Sheeran recently gained his eight number one album. He will soon embark on another leg of his sold-out stadium tour ‘Mathematics World Tour’, which is set to become one of the most attended tours of the century.
