Webinar recording: Living Heritage in the UK

In this recording of our webinar (original event 11 February 2025), we talked about what is considered Living Heritage, and the process of making a submission to the inventory.

We're asking choral, orchestral and chamber music societies to watch the overview webinars and then join us at the events for each group to help shape our submissions to the inventory on their behalf.

In 2024, the UK joined many countries in supporting the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Convention looks at Living Heritage (as it is being called in the UK) with Performing Arts as one of the categories; examples in the UK include bell-ringing, cèilidh, Eisteddfod, Lambeg drumming, wassailing and more modern expressions like carnival drumming.

At this event, our guest speaker was Steve Byrne from Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS), one of the Community Support Hubs guiding through the inventory process.

Living Heritage in the UK - Part 1 - The Living Heritage Inventory Process

Part 1 of our Living Heritage webinar, on the Inventory Process

In the second part, Alison Reeves from Making Music talked about the three Living Heritage practices we are preparing to submit: Choral Societies, Orchestral Societies and Chamber Music Societies – and how we made this decision.

Living Heritage in the UK - Part 2 - Living Heritage Proposed Submissions

Part 2 of our Living Heritage webinar, on Making Music's proposed submissions

This event was an invitation to people making and presenting music they would consider a heritage practice to get involved in submitting to the inventory. Please watch the video of the first part of the webinar and look at the Living Heritage Inventory website for full information. There is support to make a submission from Community Support Hub here

Living Heritage Meetings

If you are a member of a Choral, Orchestral or Chamber Music Society, please also watch the second part of the webinar and have a look at the website. You are invited to a meeting in February to discuss our submission.

Inventory of Living Heritage - Chamber Music meeting (online event)
Fri 20 Feb, 10am

Inventory of Living Heritage – Choral Societies meeting (online event)
Mon 23 Feb, 4pm

Inventory of Living Heritage – Orchestral Societies meeting (online event)
Wed 25 Feb, 4pm

You can download the slides for the second part of the webinar here

The views represented by the speakers in this webinar are their own, and do not represent the views of Making Music.

We hope you find this Making Music resource useful. If you have any comments or suggestions about the guidance please contact us. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the content of this guidance is accurate and up to date, Making Music do not warrant, nor accept any liability or responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the content, or for any loss which may arise from reliance on the information contained in it.