Pierard sings praises of music as an educational tool

Music can help school children achieve higher success rates, says Anna Pierard.

Schoolchildren have a higher success rate if they have a daily dose of music, says Anna Pierard.

The Hawke's Bay opera singer recently completed a mission to the UK to speak to the chair of the Commonwealth Education Trust about offering opportunities to young people who are thinking of a career in opera overseas.

She also used the opportunity to grow her existing programme - Project Prima Volta - which uses opera as an educative tool, accessible to all young people regardless of their circumstances.

"The point of the trip was to establish relationships which will be really important further down the line and build awareness about what we're doing in Hawke's Bay," Pierard says.

"Everyone was really positive, especially when it came to offering support for those wanting to study music overseas. It was really amazing to sit in a room with people who understood that it's a very pivotal time for the arts, because the arts can address a number of societal issues across the sectors."

Not only did Pierard give a presentation to the Commonwealth Education Trust, she also visited Bradford School which received international coverage after it offered two hours of music a day to its students.

"They were the bottom of the SAT table in the UK and the two hours of music therapy totally changed their results.

"It was just amazing to see the transformation of the kids and it was a real sense of relief that participation in music can influence kids' lives to a degree where we didn't expect it to.

"What we've discovered throughout this journey is that we're delivering against social outcome, educational outcome, health and mental health outcomes and the point of this trip was to help us understand how we need to proceed to be the most effective in giving kids the best opportunities."

Pierard also visited an academic who is behind a pilot which is called Arts on Prescription.

The pilot offers a series of weekly art workshops for people experiencing depression, anxiety or other mental health problems. The workshops are led by professional artist and a qualified counsellor and offer the chance to experience working with a wide range of materials and techniques, including drawing, printmaking and sculpture.

After a mixture of influential and artistic twists, Pierard believes she has enough information to research and understand how to help youth in Hawke's Bay by using music to address a number of different issues.

"After the trip it's nice to know that we're on the right path and we're looking at ways to develop the model after what we saw in the UK and establish something similar in Hawke's Bay."