A young musician has won a highly coveted music scholarship which aims to support gifted children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Derrick Iroanusi, 9, from Gallions Primary School, Beckton, is a member of the Newham Academy of Music and plays the double bass.

Derrick is one of 70 musicians to be awarded the four year scholarship, worth a total of £420,000, from the London Mayor’s Music Fund.

Over 230 children have benefited from the scheme and since 2012 almost £1,200,000 has been invested in musicians aged between 7 and 12 years old, with at least two scholars in every borough.

The scholarship gives the child over two hours of learning, music-making and other developmental activities every week, plus lots of opportunities to perform and attend concerts and live gigs.

Ginny Greenwood, chief executive of the fund, said: “The Mayor’s Music Fund is proud to be doing its bit by ensuring thousands of children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are given the opportunity to benefit from music provision of the highest standard, with the plethora of progression routes this opens up for them.”