Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) has launched a new workshop series designed to support the musical engagement of young children who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

Presented in partnership with Aurora School of the Deaf and Artistic Director and Artistic Director Karen Kyriakou, the Sound Vibrations workshops provide Deaf children access to explore and create music in an interactive and accessible learning environment.

The program is open to four-year-old kindergarteners for the first time.

Melbourne Recital Centre’s Sound Vibrations series. Photo supplied

Sound Vibrations workshops will be conducted with musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music, who will demonstrate instruments from each orchestral section and assist in the composition and exploration of music by its young participants.

“By working with students at a young age, we plant a seed for change and optimism early on,” said Belinda Ashe, MRC’s Learning and Access Manager.

“At its heart, Sound Vibrations is about education for everyone – helping children and their families realise what’s possible, and open up more avenues for them to enjoy all the lifelong benefits of having music in their lives.”

The workshops are one of many of MRC’s Learning and Access programs, a philanthropically-funded effort to make live music accessible to all, regardless of barriers.

Other programs include the Music Always initiative, which brings musicians to aged care facilities around Victoria, regional touring, and the Sound Matters workshops, presented for children with low vision.

Melbourne Recital Centre’s Sound Vibrations series. Photo supplied

In another measure towards accessibility, the venue also recently presented the first of four dedicated meetups for neurodivergent musicians, an effort sparked by its current Artist-in-Residence Nat Bartsch.

“It was an utterly transformative experience,” Bartsch wrote on Instagram.

“[Neurodivergent] musicians have the most extraordinary kindness… when you put a whole bunch of us together, it feels socially effortless.”

The next Sound Vibrations workshop will be presented in the Primrose Potter Salon on 7 May.

More about Melbourne Recital Centre’s Sound Vibrations series can be found here.