Crescendo is an Innovation Zone project that is being conducted with both the Colin and Shankill areas as well as the Ulster Orchestra and Primary Schools in both communities. ‘Crescendo’ is a musical, social and emotional learning programme that aims to provide a range of benefits for children, families and communities as a whole.
There have been two research studies conducted on Crescendo. The first study, based on the PhD work of Dr Conneth Poland (SSESW), sets out how Crescendo was designed and implemented in the Shankill and Colin communities of Belfast. It also provides preliminary evidence of how Crescendo improves musical, social and emotional skills of young children in primary schools who face multiple challenges. The team wrote a chapter on the Crescendo research for a book- Music and Social Inclusion: International Research and Practice in Complex Settings (edited by Professor Oscar Odena and published by Routledge).
The second interdisciplinary study, funded by Urban Villages Initiative within the NI Executive Office, was a quasi-experimental study of Crescendo’s effects on the musical, social and emotional development of over 400 Primary 1 pupils. This study was conducted in eight schools in the Colin and Shankill areas and found that there were positive significant effects of Crescendo on pupil outcomes. The study also identified that there were significant declines in young children’s musical abilities during the Covid pandemic. The study investigators were Innovation Zones researchers Dr Liam O’Hare (SSESW), Dr Leeanne O’Hara (Centre for Public Health), and Dr Aideen Gildea (SN&M).
To learn more about Crescendo, please contact Dr Liam O'Hare.