A £1,000 donation to help fund a project to make music education available to children and young people online is music to the ears of organisers.

Persimmon Homes North East has donated £1,000 from its Building Futures fund to music charity Sage Gateshead to support its project bringing music into the homes of more than 3,500 children and their families.

Fraser Anderson for Sage Gateshead said: “Sage Gateshead – the North East’s world-class music centre – is currently closed to the public. Despite this, we are continuing to connect with children and young people through our digital work. After taking our Young Musicians programme for four to 18-year-olds online, we want to launch a new programme to promote health and wellbeing in children and their families. As a charity deeply rooted in the community, we have seen levels of need increase significantly as a result of Covid-19. The work we have achieved to date has already had a big impact, but we have ambitious plans to develop this further."

“We know that music can transform lives. Research shows that music activity for young children boosts literacy, language acquisition and cognitive abilities, and for older children, increases attainment in maths. At a time when we are working to secure the future of Sage Gateshead for people in the North East it is fantastic to have this generous support from Persimmon Homes."

Debbie Zaben, sales director, said: “We are pleased to be able to support this project. The young people who are involved benefit greatly from the musical and learning opportunities it offers.”

Building Futures is delivered through the Persimmon Charitable Foundation in partnership with Team GB, the British Olympic Association, and the company enlisted the help of World Championship silver medallist and Tokyo Olympic Games and Team GB hopeful Laviai Nielsen (Track and Field) to launch the scheme.

A total of 128 grants of £1,000 will be awarded across Persimmon’s 32 regional businesses to improve local facilities and the delivery of vital community projects. Three initiatives will go on to win £100,000 each through a national online public vote. The winners will be named at a gala dinner for finalists in October. In each sector – education & arts, health and sport – as well as the £100,000 first prize, there will be a £50,000 second prize and a £20,000 third prize, while a further 87 shortlisted projects will each receive £5,000.