An integral part of the Festival since the early 1980's, the education programme provides access points into new music. It operates in schools, colleges, community centres and youth clubs, providing hands-on participatory projects. Projects are either targeted at groups who are under-represented in arts in the region or are designed to support the arts in education.

All aspects of the programme are free and linked to the Festival's event programme.The Festival also operates a programme of free exploratory events: films, discussions, workshops and lecture/demonstrations. These are open to the general public and are popular with educational institutions.

Over 4000 individuals have benefited from involvement in the past seven years and up to six projects run at any one time.

HCMF was nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society Education Initiative Award in 2001 and 2002 Winners of the RPS Best Education Initiative in 2000 and the Sainsbury's Award for Arts Education 1991.