ASONE PERFORM SHOWCASES ‘ALADDIN’S CAVE’ OF OVER 5,000 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE IN CORNWALL TO HIRE

ASONE Perform CIC, who now manage the former Cornwall Music Education Hub, has opened-up Cornwall’s ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of over 5,000 musical instruments to the whole county to be able to hire.  Although this service has always been technically available, almost all previous Cornwall instrument hire has been directly via local schools and music teachers.  However, ASONE is now offering accessibility to this significant collection via their website to encourage more children and adults to pick up and learn to play an instrument.  Members of the public are able to hire almost any musical instrument for up to a year at an affordable cost, whilst also accessing further music subsidies for qualifying children and families. 

At the Redruth-based ASONE Musical Instrument Store, over 5,000 instruments of all kinds are available.  The team there not only hires out the instruments, but performs a thorough service, and cleaning, of every single instrument when it is returned.  

Instrument hire only costs between £30 and £50 per school term with a delivery charge of £15 per instrument to anywhere in Cornwall.  Available instruments include strings such as violins, violas, cellos and the double bass, woodwind such as clarinets, oboes, bassoons and flutes and brass instruments such as trumpets, trombones, cornets, tubas, French horns and euphoniums.   Further options include guitars, samba drums and sets of Gamelan percussion, as well as PAs. 

There’s also a range of accessible music options including ‘Skoogs’ for hire. Skoogs are an exciting new musical instrument designed to empower those unable to play traditional instruments and are a soft, squeezable cube that connects wirelessly via Bluetooth. Instruments can either be hired individually, or as a group.  This means that local community groups, or bands, can hire a set of instruments for a specific concert or gig.  In addition, students in receipt of Free School Meals, Children in Care and children of Services Families can also apply for a 50% subsidy on their instrument hire fee.

All instrument hire is subject to availability, with priority being given to children and schools, and the income generated will be invested into buying more new instruments, of the type in most demand by the market. 

Eight school children from Hayle Academy joined members of the ASONE Hub, and a local four year old, to explore the musical instrument store and were ‘blown away’ by not only the amount of instruments available, but the number of instruments they had never even heard of. 

Cindy Dalgleish, Founding Director of ASONE Perform CIC said, “The ASONE Hub is a consortium of both national and local organisations including Falmouth University, MusicAbility CIC, Music for Good, Cornwall Music Service Trust, Livewire Youth Music, Cornwall Museums Partnership and nearly 100 other Cornish music education providers and music industry professionals.   We’re all about continuing the brilliant work of the Hub team, but also all about enlarging the previous offering with the addition of a new set of direct contemporary and popular music industry opportunities.”

Cindy continues, “We’re keen to ensure that everyone in Cornwall knows about this extensive and amazing Cornish musical instrument ‘library.’ Over 5,000 instruments are available to EVERY single person in the county, for a small hire charge, and making this available now will ensure that everyone here knows they have an option to try either a new musical learning option, or perhaps pick up an instrument they played in the past.  With the general public also hiring out our instruments, we’ll be able to further subsidise our schools work whilst knowing what instruments are most in demand, and be able to tailor the provision the contents of the store to the cross-Cornwall musical needs.”

ASONE works with classical and contemporary music partners, both local and national, to offer projects and opportunities to people of all ages.  This vital work supports and promotes access to high quality music education and progression opportunities for all children and young people in Cornwall.   The ASONE Hub is funded by Arts Council England.

The music store itself is not open to the public and all hires are via the website.  People interested in knowing more, or hiring an instrument for themselves, should access the ASONE website at: www.cornwallmusiceducationhub.org/what-we-do/instrument-hire/ or by contacting the Instrument Manager via email on [email protected]