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Naxos Music Box opens up the world of classical music
There’s never been a better time for schools to beef up the breadth of their online resources at relatively little cost, so as to provide more useful material for teachers delivering online or blended learning.
One such resource is Naxos Music Box, launched in the summer of 2020. Billed as “a comprehensive introduction to the world of classical music for 4–12-year-olds”, it’s built on the Naxos founder Klaus Heymann’s key philosophy of bringing classical music to as wide as possible an audience. Extensive sections on the orchestra, music history, music around the world, and 50 of the world’s most well-known composers all come accompanied by listening examples drawn from Naxos’ own world-class library of recordings.
The education version of Music Box (available only directly from Naxos UK and not from the global website) also has separate log-ins for student and teacher, and provides considerable support for teachers in the way of guidance notes, extended tasks, and clear pathways through the material; at a time where some lessons are covered by non-specialists for Covidrelated absences, this support level is very reassuring for already stretched schools.
At the beginning of 2021 when the latest UK lockdown was announced, Naxos took the decision to make Music Box available free of charge for a limited time. Their Education Sales Manager Julian Edwards says: “At the start of January we found ourselves in yet another lockdown and remote teaching situation in the UK, and music educators were crying out for more varied resources to help with blended learning and delivery. We were really pleased to be able to show our support for already under pressure teachers by making Music Box available totally free of charge: over 300 schools and music hubs took up our offer and found it an invaluable resource; many have now subscribed for the year.”
Music Box is also making waves on the education awards scene: in the autumn of 2020 the resource won the Creative Child Awards 2020 ‘Product of the Year’ in the USA, and has been shortlisted for the Outstanding Music Education Resource at the UK’s 2021 Music & Drama Education Awards.
As well as the awards buzz, Naxos is already catching the attention of music Hubs in the UK too: primary schools working with Wigan Music Hub will all be given access to the resource as standard from this coming September under a hub-wide deal arranged by Naxos. The Hub’s curriculum Lead Carmel Loughney told us: “Naxos MusicBox is an attractively presented and well organised resource which opens up the world of classical music to teachers, parents and children in a fun and appealing way. Packed with high quality recordings, lesson plans and print outs, we consider Music Box to be an ideal resource to support teachers with the delivery of the music National Curriculum. We are really excited to be introducing this resource to schools across the Wigan borough in 2021.”
Music Box also has the advantage of not making too large a dent in precariously balanced school budgets. There are various pricing models and individual schools can subscribe from just from just £50/year for a class set of user licences.
Primary Music Magazine readers can benefit from a two-week free trial of the resource, and then a 10% discount on the published prices for school subscriptions. To take advantage of this offer, and for more details on the resource, contact Naxos’ Music Education Sales Manager Julian Edwards jedwards@naxosmusic.co.uk /