Hanson Community Arts - Excellence and Inclusivity

Hanson Community Arts is a place where any person is welcome to come learn and play music as part of a community. We are based on the premises of Hanson Musical Instruments in Marsden, West Yorkshire, and when permitted, we run regular music groups, lessons and classes for anyone who wants to learn and have fun. At HansonCommunity Arts we are accepting of anyone and everyone, and we always invite everyone to come along no matter the age or ability. 

Our goal is to make all of our classes more accessible to more people, and make our community one that stretches across the UK and the world. To accomplish this we are working tirelessly to make all of our content available online, so that anyone who is unable to join us in person can still get the amazing experience of playing and learning as part of a group. We are continually making more of our content available online including the ability to join live sessions, easy PDF music downloads, audio and visual play alongs of our pieces, and a growing library of tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your playing.

As our name suggest, Hanson Community Arts is a community, and we value the opinion of those that are involved and want to get involved with what we’re doing. So let us know what you would like to see from us and we will do our best to take all your suggestions on board.

About Hanson Music

Hanson Musical Instruments - Ethical. Sustainable. Fair.

Alastair Hanson founded his musical instrument making business in 1989 after graduating from Leeds College of Music and with support from The Prince’s Trust. More than thirty years on and joined by his wife Jenny, Hanson Musical Instruments are recognised amongst the world’s finest. The first instruments produced by Hanson Music were Clarinets, which have gained an enviable reputation for their reliability and superior tonal qualities. Then in 2011, the Hanson Clarinet became the first ever FSC certified Woodwind instrument thanks to our sustainably and ethically sourced materials. We now produce a whole range of woodwind, brass and string instruments for all levels of players.

Alastair’s expertise and experience in instrument design and manufacturing has led to international demand for his services as a consultant. Alastair has worked with factories manufacturing for Buffet, Selmer, Backun, Keilwerth, Stomvi, Vincent Bach International, Rath, Ripamonté, Howarth, Blessing, Jupiter, and many more. This incredible knowledge of the industry as a whole has allowed the Hanson Musical Instruments to rise to the top.

Alastair’s expertise is not only sought after by top manufacturers, but by governments too. Back in the early 2000’s, Alastair played a key role in rejuvenating the musical instrument production industry in China as requested by the Chinese Government. Working as part of a small team, he made some much needed changes to their manufacturing processes and designs, which quickly enabled China to become world leaders in instrument manufacturing.

In 2017 Hanson Community Arts was formed after the a local Community Group lost their home in a nearby Village. The top floor of the music shop was very quickly transformed into a large rehearshal room where local groups were free to play and practice every night of the week. Now over three years on, Hanson Community Arts has hundreds of students of all ages taking part in groups, lessons and classes run by our amazing group of teachers and staff.

COVID-19

Hanson Community Arts is opening gradually with social distancing measures in place for individual music-making and one-to-one teaching.
Health and wellbeing is our top priority and protective measures have been put in place to help ensure the safest possible use of the building at this time.  We will continue to monitor the situation closely.

We are planning a flexible curriculum for the autumn that will enable everyone to benefit from music making while keeping safe, as well as taking advantage of our digital learning environment.

In September we bring back some ensembles with a limited number of places on site for participants.  Online booking will be available.

Following schools half term holiday in October, we will be assess our programmes and update everyone.

With social distancing measures in place we will facilitate music-making. Some of our projects will use blended approaches to learning with both live and digital interaction, harnessing all the additional benefits that online resources can bring. Our autumn events season will include specially commissioned films and an expanded programme of streaming and recording to share our performances, masterclasses and other activities with global audiences.

By March 2021 we are planning to return to teaching and all groups onsite whilst continuing to offer digital delivery.

Hanson Community Arts has undertaken all necessary risk assessments for reopening, maintaining social distancing and other public safety measures.

Hanson Community Arts Goes Online

We’re trying to make it easier for anyone in the community to get involved by making all of our lessons, classes and groups available online. We are building a large library of video content, along with a huge database of sheet music to ensure that anyone can have access to the brilliant music making that goes on at Hanson Community Arts. We are also beginning to offer online access to live music making sessions and classes, so that those who are unable to join us in person can be involved in live music making from the comfort of their own home.

Visit our What’s On page to see how you can get involved.

Join Our Virtual Christmas Concert

Christmas will be different for everyone this year, and our Christmas Concert is no exception. To make sure everyone can still be involved, we’ll be doing online rehearsals of the Christmas pieces, offering individual lessons for those that need them, and making plenty of video content for you to watch and learn from at home. Then, as it gets nearer to Christmas, we’ll ask everyone involved to send us their performances so that we can put them all together to form our Virtual Christmas Concert. 

Click the button below to get involved.

Friends of Hanson Community Arts

Hanson Community Arts is a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to give every person the chance to get involved in the arts. The running of such an organisation does not come cheap, and it is made sustainable by the help of many generous individuals and organisations such as Arts Council England and Friends of Hanson Community Arts. Friends of Hanson Community Arts donate any amount they can to the organisation so that we continue providing education and happiness through the arts to the community. If you are able, we would love it if you could click the button below and become a Friend of Hanson Community Arts today by donating. 

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