Keys of Change

General information

Keys of Change aims to advance the lives of children and young people around the world through musical education and access to live classical music performances.

The charity was set up in early 2011 by the international concert pianist Panos Karan, who works with three other trustees, all involved in music and/or education, and a growing number of committed volunteers in many countries.

Over the past five years, Keys of Change has brought classical music, often for the first time, to deprived or suffering audiences, in remote areas of the Amazon basin, Uganda, Siberia, Sierra Leone, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kolkata and the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima area in Japan, as well as in Greece, Russia and London. Our music has brought alive emotions - fascination, happiness, tears of sadness – and generated hope and encouragement.

Wherever we go to perform, we also set up and fund musical education projects, working in conjunction with local music teachers. In Ecuador, we organise weekly guitar lessons for young people from deprived backgrounds. In Uganda and Sierra Leone, we have provided instruments and music lessons. In Fukushima and India, we have made regular visits to work with young musicians to improve their playing, and give them the opportunity to perform in joint concerts with Keys of Change musicians. In the case of Fukushima, this culminated in our organising for 50 young Japanese musicians to come to London to give a concert with Keys of Change and Orpheus Sinfonia at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in April 2014, and subsequently in Tokyo Opera City (August 2015) and Boston Symphony Hall (April 2016).