A children’s jazz club in North Wales will help show the UK how to keep generations of young musicians playing their instruments.

The club is run by Gwynedd-based Sistema Cymru - Codi’r To and will run one of ten pilot projects funded by Elevate – a pioneering programme jointly launched by the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music exam board and its four Royals Schools of Music partners after a UK-wide report revealed that large numbers of young musicians were abandoning their instruments.

ABRSM chief executive Michael Elliott said: “We know that cost and lack of opportunity stop too many children from continuing with their music – especially between primary and secondary schools - and we want to know how we can tackle this.

“The Codi’r To jazz club operates in a community with many challenges and has struggled to keep going.

"Our funding is about helping it find new ways of keeping young musicians engaged– and helping the rest of the UK learn some important lessons.”

Codi’r To, which works with youngsters from Ysgol Maesincla and Ysgol Glancegin, plans to relaunch the jazz club and will work with students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to give young musicians extra instrument tuition.

"College Students will benefit from teaching experience with Codi’r To.

Codi’r To musical director Bari Gwilliam said: “It’s great to be working with the Royal Welsh College like this.

"We’re really looking forward to re-launching the club and will be showing the world what we’ve achieved in a special public performance in July.”

The North Wales project is one of ten projects sharing £100k funding from the Elevate programme. The other nine will take place in Belfast, Cornwall, Glasgow, London, Ayrshire, Lancashire, Manchester, Wolverhampton and Bradford. Different projects will look at ways of involving young people in shaping their own music learning and building the skills of music educators through CPD and apprenticeships.They will stimulate new partnerships between schools, charities and the industry and will test the impact of everything from composition and group learning methods to use of technology, community events and cross genre workshops.

The ABRSM – the world’s leading music examination board – launched the programme with its four Royal Schools partners – Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - after last year’s Music Commission report showed that lack of opportunity and cost were stopping too many children from taking their music further.Lessons learned from the ten projects will be used to guide the efforts of organisations working with young people in music.MVisit www.codirto.com/english/index.html