Songo Family Concert (part of the Voces Festival 2024)

Quimantu has always had a social and cultural mission that extends beyond the band’s work in creating, performing, and recording music. In 1998 that mission took shape as a new organisation – Musiko Musika – an organisation that could work in parallel to Quimantu, reaching further than the band could alone, engaging children, young people, families and the community with music as a powerful agent for social change, as a tool for increasing our understanding of each other, and as means of giving creative and cultural expression to our lives.

To achieve this Musiko Musika designs, develops and delivers innovative music projects, programmes, and events with a social and cultural impact including creative & instrumental workshops, ensembles, training, family learning, audio and video content and publications. We mostly work with children, young people, families, education practitioners and musicians, particularly of the Global Majority and socio-economically challenged backgrounds. Jointly directed by the musicians Mauricio Venegas-Astorga and Rachel Pantin we are funded by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation and are a partner at the Lyric Hammersmith.

There are two main strands to Musiko Musika's programme of work. The World Music Academy provides world music programmes including the Voces Festival and the ECCO (Ethnic Contemporary Classical Orchestra) ensembles for young people. Sing and Learn projects use music to support the development of strong speech and language skills and other areas of the curriculum including personal, social and emotional development. Digital: Both strands are supported by an extensive digital resource of videos, audio, publications and our apps available for Apple and Android devices (Sing & Learn and World Music Academy).

Little Lives in Song Concert June 2023

Host or Publisher Musiko Musika