What a great time of year to make music – birds are singing and, in the words of the Reading Rota, 'Sumer is icumen in'!

At Zone, we’ve been busy programming next year’s musiclearninglive!2011 which takes place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama on 3 & 4 March 2011. We’re proud to announce that we’ve received a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, enabling us to offer even more discounted places to students, Primary teachers and members of nominated music and music education organisations. Details of Ultra Early Bird (available until 31 May 2010) and other great discounts are available here.

We’re also working on the next issue of zone magazine which will be published online in July. Look out for:

• a report on the work of Sistema Scotland
• an open letter from Primary music teacher Janice Hadwin to the members of the musiclearninglive!2010 Question Time panel
• features by Deborah Annetts (Chief Executive, Incorporated Society of Musicians) and Nicholas Wilks (Director of Music, Winchester College)

Bill & Bono on the fundraising trail

As well as publishing zone magazine five times a year, we like to think we keep you up to date with the latest music education news and events, both on musiceducationzone and our other websites, choirzone and musiceducationzoneasia.

• Did you know, for example, that Bono has been busy raising funds for a national music education programme for Ireland? Check out the story here.
• Or that Scottish Opera Connect has extended its youth programme to include young instrumentalists? Details and application form available here.

And last but not least, we’re continuing to develop our exciting new partnership with the Federation of Music Services through the FMSbuzz campaign website. To find out more, click here.