Jason and Azra get rescued instruments — and a new life

Thousands of musical instruments are thrown away every year – but a growing number of UK schemes are giving them, and the children who play them, a second chance

Thousands of musical instruments are thrown away every year – but a growing number of UK schemes are giving them, and the children who play them, a second chance

Jason, a year 11 student from Manchester, sits tall with a cello resting in the space between his knees. Sunlight spills through the window of the practice room, pooling on the amber wood of the instrument. If you look closely, you might notice the faint scars of a crack that once left this 114-year-old cello nearly silent. Jason lifts his bow, straightens his shoulders. The first notes come tentatively, a whisper of horse hair on string, before growing into a clear, steady sound that fills the room.

Not long ago, Jason’s afternoons disappeared behind a bedroom door, the blue glow of a computer screen his only stage. Now, his weekends are spent performing classical pieces with fellow young musicians.

The cello – now his cello – came to him through a local charity, the Olympias Music Foundation. It has become an anchor, something to hold on to. “If it wasn’t for Olympias, I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to a lot of opportunities like I have,” he says. Rescued from disrepair, restored with care, the instrument has been given a new life – and in return, it’s helped Jason find his own.

Jason, with his ever-present smile, is an outgoing young man and describes himself as “joyful” and “curious”. Coming from a musical family he can also play the piano and guitar but his focus is now on his new love – the cello. “I enjoy music even more now,” he says. “I listen to it more and more.” His friendship group has always been expansive – he enjoys playing rugby, basketball and table tennis – but he says it has grown further as he spends more time talking and performing with his fellow musicians.

His father, Ifeanyi, sits nearby among a stack of books. He says that learning an instrument has helped Jason to focus more and become calmer. “I can see how happy Jason is when he plays.”

Next to Jason, 11-year-old Azra clutches her violin with pride. Her instrument was salvaged from a pile of broken violins and fixed up during a mending weekend organised by the Olympias Music Foundation . It was then given to her, free of charge. Without it, she wouldn’t be playing at all. Her instruments have grown with her, smaller violins returned then replaced with larger instruments as she grows in size and skill.

“Performing in front of audiences every year has given me more confidence,” she says. “My friends think it is amazing. They were very impressed when I performed for them at school.”

Jason sits with his donated cello

Although there are no official figures in the UK, it is estimated that more than 10,000 instruments are discarded each year. Some are beyond saving, some were never fit for purpose, but many are now being rescued, restored and reused thanks to a network of determined people who have created initiatives up and down the country. In an era of squeezed school budgets and shrinking arts funding, these efforts are doing more than just preventing waste – they’re giving young people like Jason and Azra tools to flourish.

The scale of musical waste is significant. The surge of musical interest during the pandemic – when more than a million adults in the UK took up new instruments, and retailer Gear4music reported an 80% sales boost – was followed by a government programme in 2022 that distributed 20,000 instruments to schools. But as the initial enthusiasm waned and instruments took inevitable knocks and tumbles, an unwanted consequence emerged: churn and waste on a substantial scale.