Airdate: Don’t Stop the Music

ABC premieres music education series Don’t Stop The Music in November as part of AusMusic month.

The 3-part series follows the journey of a primary school where music is not taught in the classroom and shows how students, teachers and families are uplifted by music.

Guy Sebastian appears as a mentor to inspire the students, most of whom have never touched a musical instrument.

Produced by Artemis Media, this is based on a UK format by Fresh One Productions Limited.

Guided by leading music educators, including Micheál McCarthy from WAAPA, teachers are given new tools to teach their students to play instruments and sing.

Don’t Stop The Music will screen as part of ABC’s annual Ausmusic Month in November. For the month of November, ABC celebrates and embraces Australian music across all its platforms with special initiatives, live performances and programming, highlighting and paying tribute to the diverse, depth and variety of Australian music.

Filmed over 9 months, the series follows primary school students at school and at home with their families as they learn, practice, struggle and persevere with their instruments. The students perform for their peers and are treated to performances from visiting bands and choirs and hands-on workshops as a culture of music begins to develop in the school.

The benefits of music begin to play out among the children, tempering disruptive behavior, bringing serial truants back to the classroom and providing a creative outlet for kids who haven’t excelled in traditional academic areas.

Featured in the series is Dr Anita Collins, an award-winning educator, researcher and writer in the field of brain development and music learning.

“Two decades of frenzied research has now found that music education grows, hones and permanently improves neural networks like no other activity.

Children who undertake formal, ongoing musical education have significantly higher levels of cognitive capacity, specifically in their language acquisition and numerical problem-solving skills. They also continue in education for longer, reverse the cognitive issues related to disadvantage, and earn and contribute more on average across their lifetime.”

In tandem with the series, the ABC, the Salvation Army and Musica Viva will launch a national appeal, encouraging people to donate unused or unwanted musical instruments that can be provided to school music programs.

Production Credits: An Artemis Media Production, made in association with ABC, Screen Australia, Screenwest and Lotterywest. Producer Celia Tait. ABC Executive Producer Stephen Oliver.

Part 1 airs Sunday November 11th at 7.40pm on ABC.