Our projects

Launched in 2010, Démos intervenes where access to artistic and cultural education is made difficult by economic and social factors, or by the geographical remoteness of teaching institutions. It offers 3 years of free orchestral musical training for children aged 7 to 12 from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and isolated rural areas. After an initial phase of experimentation within the larger Paris region (2010-2012), a second stage (2012-2015) took place including two additional departments of France (Aisne and Isère) followed by a third (2015-2019) extending to the whole country. This social orchestral and musical education scheme now includes almost fifty orchestras in France.
Crédit : Pierre Morel

Since 2005, Les Concerts de Poche has been developing high-standard, inclusive musical projects with the finest performers of classical, lyrical and jazz music, giving priority to young people, as well as people and geographical areas farthest from culture. A travelling team, it organises workshops and concerts, with inclusive pricing and co-creates projects with local communities. The association enables the most vulnerable and isolated people to regain their self-confidence, as well as develop individually and collectively through the experience of music at its highest level. Based in six regional offices across France, the team is constantly on the road, developing projects everywhere and for everyone. The Fonds K pour la Musique supports the initiatives carried out in Reims.
Crédit : Didier Bonnel

Founded in 1997, the Ostinato Orchestra provides its 80 young instrumentalists with professional experience as orchestral musicians. Since its inception, the orchestra has been strongly committed to fighting loneliness and isolation, as well as supporting access to culture for all. The young musicians enable people in vulnerable situations to rediscover the joy of life through music and the concerts in which they are given the opportunity to participate. The Fonds K supports the actions carried out in the detention centres of Fleury-Mérogis and Melun, in particular percussion workshops led by Manon Duchemann.

Harmony Project is a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 that provides music education to 3,500 underserved children and youth in Los Angeles, California, USA. Harmony Project harnesses the transformative power of music to increase access to higher education for its students by removing systemic barriers to achievement through academic and social support. Students receive access to professional-grade musical instruments and high-quality instruction from trained musicians, as well as social, emotional, educational, and financial assistance. The organization's holistic approach to student success has resulted in impressive outcomes for students’ college acceptance and has awarded over $3,000,000 to more than 600 alumni. The organization has received recognition and support from the White House, the U.S. Department of Education, and has provided students with incredible performance opportunities.

For 15 years, the Harmony Program has been changing lives through music. They provide musical instruments and music education to children in New York City's most underserved neighborhoods and within diverse communities often underrepresented in classical music. Each year, the organization inspires approximately 1,000 youth by supporting students in music fluency, social-emotional learning, confidence building, peer connections, and creative expression. Throughout the "boroughs" (neighborhoods) of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, the Harmony Program offers in-school and after-school music classes, as well as weekend and summer learning opportunities. The Fonds K pour la Musique supports the Harmony Program Youth Orchestra (HPYO) system. HPYO is a system of ensembles that allow young musicians, including beginner and advanced students, to extend their music learning through weekend rehearsals, master classes, and public performances throughout New York City.
Crédit : Harmony Program

At the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and Italy’s first center for medical research, the Fonds K supports a research project on “The effect of music on the maternal-fetal auditory-emotional cross-talk during the late fetal period”. When a pregnant woman speaks or sings, the melody and rhythm of her voice, transfer to the fetus through her body, carrying emotions. This maternal-fetal “dialogue” lies the neurodevelopmental foundations of a lifetime “medley” between cognition and emotion. The goal of our project is to understand how music, during pregnancy, can hallmark the footing of brain activity in the fetus, through fetal functional brain imaging. This project represents an important turning point for interlacing music with research and clinical interventions during pregnancy, aimed at safeguarding the cognitive and emotional tuning of any child further on in life.

The Fonds K supports the University Hospital of Geneva in its work studying the brain development of premature babies stimulated by exposure to a sound environment - both musical and vocal - specifically created with a view to develop a personalised medical approach. The research is aimed at understanding the mechanisms of brain plasticity and development in the presence of music, enabling Professor Petra Hüppi and her team to do more, at the right time, according to the individual needs of these little ones.

In 1970, the composer Pierre Boulez took on the tasks of creating and directing an institute for musical research and creation in partnership with the Centre Pompidou. Today, the Ircam, Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music, is one of the largest public research centres dedicated to musical creation and scientific research in the world. It is home to the joint research unit of Sciences and Technologies of Music and Sound. The Fonds K has supported the research of Victor Rosi, a doctoral student in the Perception and Sound Design team. His thesis, which focuses on the semantic and acoustic characterization of sound, was defended in April 2022.
Crédit : IRCAM

"Les petits violons" is one of the Paris Opera's educational activities. For three years, the primary school students participating in the program have been benefitted from musical practice workshops for seven hours a week during school hours, as well as meetings with Opera professionals. They also attended rehearsals and performances. The effects of the program are extremely beneficial: teachers have noted an impact on the students' openness to all things cultural and creative, and the majority of students have expressed a desire to pursue an artistic practice at the end of the program. The program ended with a performance of "La Traversée" at the Amphitheatre of the Opéra Bastille.
Crédit : Opéra national de Paris