About us

Our core values are to ‘inspire, nurture and excel’ and to provide the young people of Northamptonshire with musical and artistic opportunities.

What we offer

We offer a range of enrichment programmes for schools and individuals of all ages around the county. Our highly talented team of teachers are able to provide teaching on musical instruments at every school in the county. We offer a full range of instruments and musical styles and currently teach 15,000 students in ‘First Access’ – whole class instrumental lessons or small groups.

There are 12 Saturday Music and Performing Arts Centres, (plus one on a Thursday evening) and 4 NMPAT Contemporary Centres at venues around the county. The centres are open to everybody and exist to provide an educational and fun environment for any young person interested in the Arts.

We run a programme of residential courses for young musicians and some of the county groups. We also have an extensive programme of concerts and events throughout the year, including many regular fixtures in our calendar.

Northamptonshire is renowned for the high standard of its ensembles, with over 1,000 young musicians involved in our award winning County Music and Drama Groups.

We are also the biggest providers of instrumental music lessons to individuals in the county. Lessons take place at our Kettering Road Music and Arts Centre in Northampton and at a variety of venues around Northamptonshire. Kettering Road is also the home for our Youth Theatre, Northampton Rock and Early Years Music classes.

About the trust

In April 2012 the Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust was established as an Independent Charitable Company after 40 years trading as the former Local Authority Music Service.

Shortly afterwards NMPAT was appointed the lead partner in the new Northamptonshire Music Education Hub (NMEH) and in September 2013 was invited to take over the lead role in the Rutland Music Education Hub, Rutland Music, now established as a subsidiary charity. Working with other local Music and Arts groups the Hubs will oversee the local delivery of the government’s National Music Plan.

Job vacancies

All of our vacancies, both teaching and administrative, will be posted here.

Our role as a Music Education Hub

Information on all of our partners and Rutland Music Education Hub.

Policies

Information on all of our policies, including how we keep children safe, what we do when recruiting staff and our policy on photographs.

Student success stories

We value all of our students and their experiences. Here are a selection of stories from former students about their time at NMPAT.

Trustees, funders and partners

We could not continue our valuable work without the contributions of our partners and trustees.

Where to find us

Donate using Local Giving

Make a donation

Donate using Virgin Money Giving

Make a donation

Coronavirus and NMPAT

Monday 29th June

The NMPAT office is now open again and is being manned daily to answer your calls as well as respond to your emails. This is an important step towards being able to open the building again, but at the moment we are still not able to hold any rehearsals or deliver any lessons on site. If you do come to visit us you will be invited to observe social distancing and additional hygiene measures.

We are talking to schools about when we may be able to start visiting them again and are making plans. We look forward to the time when we can also be back in school delivering face to face lessons and rehearsals.

All activities, events and regular face to face teaching remain suspended and our events are cancelled up to the end of term:

Our first NMPAT on-line Virtual Centre will meet on Saturday 4^th July
County Auditions are underway with a new virtual audition format and we have received lots of video auditions
Plans for all activities to start in September are underway, either virtually, or face to face

Almost all the teaching staff of the Trust remain furloughed, although HMRC have given permission for some on-line sessions to take place on a voluntary basis. Some people have asked about donation channels and these remain open at Virgin Money Giving, Local Giving and through Parent Pay. We really do appreciate your support.

Please stay in touch with our NMPositiviT team who are posting daily on our social media sites. We are aiming to find ways to keep you busy, practising and engaged in what we do. Check out #NMPositiviT.

We look forward to a time when we can all come together and begin to make music and theatre together again. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy and keep practising.

Peter Smalley, Chief Executive

Monday June 29th