Meny
The ShareMusic concept originated in the UK, where Doctor Michael Swallow started the business in 1986. In his professional life, Swallow had seen a need for music activities for young people with disabilities when they left school. The photo shows ShareMusic's chief executive and artistic director Sophia Alexandersson with composer Nigel Osborne, who has been involved with ShareMusic since its inception.
UK-based Share Music started at the Share Centre in Lisnaskea, Northern Ireland, which also contributed to the name of the organisation. The concept spread throughout the UK, but today only regional operations remain in England.
In 1995, current chief executive Sophia Alexandersson attended a ShareMusic course in Wales and became extremely fascinated by the concept. A few years later, she was asked to organise a course in Sweden. In 2002, she was the project manager for the first course in Sweden, which was an unexpected success.
ShareMusic continued its course activities in cooperation with various actors around Sweden. After the start in 2002 in Sweden, the non-profit association Share Music Sweden was formed in 2003, legally independent from the UK operation. 2016 the association changed its name to ShareMusic & Performing Arts.
The course activity was the foundation for ShareMusic in Sweden. Over the years, it has expanded to include research and development projects, performing arts productions and knowledge sharing in collaboration with both Swedish and international partners. In 2017, Region Jönköping County, Region Skåne and Västra Götaland Region joined forces and were granted multi-year development funding from the Swedish Arts Council to transform ShareMusic into the national knowledge centre it is today.
