Is your musical activity Living Heritage?

Updated 13/02/2026: You can now watch the webinar recording of our overview event on Living Heritage in the UK here. We're asking choral, orchestral and chamber music societies to watch the overview webinar and then join us at the events for each group to help shape our submissions to the inventory on their behalf.

Is your musical activity Living Heritage? We’re talking to members about how a UK government and UNESCO initiative can help recognise, celebrate and protect our valuable music traditions – and we want to hear from you.

UK Living Heritage, or Intangible Cultural Heritage, is being collated in an inventory by the government, following on from its signing of the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Everyone practising a heritage cultural activity is now invited to put it forward for submission. 

A wide range of music activities and performance practices can be included, not just older forms of traditional music, but also more modern forms such as brass banding, steelbands or drum and bass. The term Living Heritage means that it is both currently practised and has some heritage i.e. has been passed on over at least some generations (including activity emerging relatively recently e.g. Notting Hill Carnival, Edinburgh Fringe).

We think most Making Music members’ activities in making and presenting music are Living Heritage, and that it’s important that these forms are included on the inventory. The process is designed for practitioners themselves to make a submission, and we can see a role for us in submitting an entry where the majority of those practising are our members; Choral Societies, Orchestral Societies and Chamber Music Societies. But we also want to support and encourage those members who have their own representative body (e.g. Barbershop Choirs), or whose practitioners are not majority Making Music members – Welsh Male Voice Choirs, Brass Bands, Taborers, etc - to make a submission.  

We hosted an online event to explain more about Living Heritage, and the process of submitting to the inventory. You can watch the recording here.

We’ll be joined by Steve Byrne from Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland who are a Community Support Hub with expertise on this topic. There is also an excellent website where you can read explanations, guidance and see current expressions of interest (which are the first step towards a submission):  

We are holding additional meetings in February for members Choral Societies, Orchestral Societies and Chamber Music Societies, about the submission we intend to make for these three practices, so we can get input and consent to make a full submission that is responsible and accurate. 

Submissions to the inventory are only open until the end of March this year (although the submission process is intended to re-open annually). So we’re encouraging interested groups to come to the event, look at the website or get in touch with us and make sure your valuable heritage practice gets the recognition it deserves.