Over the summer we took the opportunity to celebrate partnerships old and new with special live music experiences at health and care settings across the UK. We sent out party packs including bunting, balloons and our conversation starter cue cards.

In Belfast we celebrated with Northern Ireland Hospice, where we have been sharing live music since 1997. Singer guitarist Edelle McMahon played in the communal area and visited patients’ rooms. One person said, “Live music gives you energy, lifts your mood and you can forget you’re sick in a hospice.”

At Deva House Day Centre in Wrexham there were some impressive handmade musical decorations and our musician Bernie Fawcett, who has been playing there since 2022, helped to celebrate a 96th birthday. He took requests and staff handed out percussion instruments and feather boas. Older People’s Coordinator Kath Riley spoke about how much she appreciates the sessions and enjoys seeing how excited members are when there is one coming up.

We have been sharing live music at Royal Edinburgh Hospital for over 10 years and were delighted to celebrate our 75th anniversary at this year’s Summer Fling event. Patients, staff, and volunteers all came together in the mental health hospital’s courtyard garden to enjoy uplifting music from mandolin and accordion duo Cloud Nine.

Holy Cross Hospital in Surrey cares for people with severe disabilities. Our musicians have been visiting there for over 15 years and pianist Alastair Collingwood joined them to celebrate our 75th anniversary.

“You can’t really put into words how in-person live music connects with people, it’s a lived experience.”

Charles Mariott, Patient Activities Coordinator

Our musicians have been sharing calming melodies at bedsides in critical care since 2016, when our ICU Hear® programme launched at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Since then we have expanded this award-winning approach across the UK, helping to turn this often busy, noisy and stressful environment into a peaceful space.

In 2023/24 a guitarist, kora player and clarinettist rotated each week to share live music at Manchester Royal Infirmary. At the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, we worked with four different musicians to explore weekly relaxing live music during the critical care ‘quiet hour’ between 1.30 and 2.30pm, when clinical staff try to avoid medical interventions unless there is an emergency. Guitarist Will Browne visited University Hospital Wales in Cardiff twice a month, which has continued into 2024.

In London we have been partnering with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust since March 2023 to share live music once or twice a month, with four musicians at Charing Cross, St Mary’s Paddington, and Hammersmith Hospital (from December).

“One patient was in tears before we arrived and was unsure if she wanted any music. When I played on the ward she had a beaming smile and her mother filmed the interaction and said how beautiful it was. We came back to the same patient at the end of the session and played again and she was laughing and so joyful. Her day had really turned around in the short time I was there.”

Kora player Rudy Green at Charing Cross Hospital

Singer and guitarist Mica Bernard has been making a difference at Imperial NHS Trust too, with Lullaby Hour every other week at St Mary’s Paddington and Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, and every week atSt Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey.

Lullaby Hour creates special moments and memories for parents and their babies in neonatal units. Music can reduce babies’ heart rates and help them to sleep more deeply. This can reduce the time families have to spend in hospital. We are proud of the impact Lullaby Hour has had for hundreds of families over the past seven years.

“It’s incredible because you’re able to create a first memory for a parent with their baby. There’s so many noises, nothing is really normal, so to be part of creating a safe and comfortable space is what makes it really special.”

Mica Bernard

Our long-standing partnerships with Guernsey’s Healing Music Trust and Arts in Healthcare Jersey continue to grow. In 2023/24 15 of our musicians completed 11 tours, delivering 25 to 30 hours of live music each over the course of a week on the Islands.

Folk duo Paul Walker and Karen Pfeiffer thoroughly enjoyed their first tour of Guernsey this year. “We all sang Sarnia Cherie [Guernsey’s national anthem] together,” says Karen. “One of the volunteers said afterwards that she had never seen people respond so well in terms of interaction. That was wonderful feedback for us! We perform a totally different set of songs at a care home to at a special school. They should all mean something. And we involve the audience as much as we can.”

In Jersey, where we have been sharing live music since 1993, we are working to ensure that live music can reach further on the island throughout the year with a shared learning workshop in April 2024. This aims to build confidence and upskill volunteers and musicians at fellow charity Aureole Music.

Our Music for Mental Health and Wellbeing pilot project, funded by the Peter Sowerby Foundation, came to an end in August 2023. It has helped us to develop our approach to live music in this area by working closely with our partners to improve practice, learn, develop and identify key outcomes.

The final phase of the project saw live music happening across five mental health settings in Manchester, Glasgow, Croydon, Chester and Bridgend between March and July 2023.

Researcher Ruth Stevenson independently evaluated the project, designing a framework and associated methodology that would bring together local and national data. A steering group made up of people with lived experience of mental health and healthcare professionals also inputted on the delivery model.

During the live music at Ty Llidiard, a residential NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Bridgend, patients took part in visual arts activities while listening to the music. We secured funding from the Arts Council of Wales for a six month programme to continue these sessions that started in January 2023.

In June we completed our Music in Health project, funded by the Arts Council of Wales in partnership with Swansea Bay University Health Board. 15 musicians shared 150 hours of live music across three hospital sites, including mental health and dementia wards. They reached over 2,000 patients during the 12 month project.

Following on from this we are partnering with Swansea Bay University Health Board and the Arts Council of Wales on a second project called ‘Musical Hospitals’. In 2024 Neath Port Talbot Hospital will transform into a music hub, with Music in Hospitals & Care musicians visiting the neuro-rehabilitation ward weekly. Other partners on the project bringing music into the hospital include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Welsh National Opera, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and Live Music Now.

Another exciting new project is investigating how people living with dementia engage with arts, including music and dance, and whether these activities are meaningful to those who participate. IMAGINED: Investigating Meaning-making and the co-creation of Guidelines for Evaluation IN Arts for Dementia, is led by Dr Katey Warran at ECRED, the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Lived Experience of Dementia.

Activity began in November 2023 and will continue through to 2025. In the first phase, Music in Hospitals & Care will deliver 20 live music experiences at care homes in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The time dedicated to growing these partnerships has resulted in rich bodies of work discovering the impact of regular live music and of both group and one-to-one interactions. This is something we have been exploring with Oakminster Healthcare, which will be part of our work in the ECRED research project. We first began sharing live music with Oakminster care homes in Glasgow in 2022 as part of the Rights Made Real campaign, which champions human rights and quality of life in care homes.

In 2023 we continued this work with a programme of music funded by Creative Scotland to ensure that people could access music even if they were unable to join the group in a communal space. The musicians met people in their most comfortable and familiar space so that no one had to miss out. We have since been able to expand this model to care homes in the Dundee area.

In Northern Ireland we embarked on a learning project with two health and social care trusts to explore the benefits for patients and staff of long-term programmes of live music.

During the first year of the project we have worked with the Arts in Health Manager at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and the Health & Wellbeing Manager at Northern Health and Social Care Trust, to share 20 hours of live music across four hospital settings for older people living with dementia and adults with drug and alcohol problems.

One patient said that they had the “best day; all I did was laugh and smile” and another said “it made my anxiety reduce. It was good for my mood and made me relaxed.”

Make Music Day, the global celebration of music, took place once again on 21 June. Previous years have seen ‘make your own kitchen orchestra’ and live streamed performances. This year we teamed up with Walton BID (Business Improvement District) for some feel-good tunes on the plaza at The Heart Shopping Centre and sing-along classics at Walton-on-Thames Community Centre.
In December our music delivery and fundraising teams joined forces for our second annual Festive MusicaliTea at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton-on-Thames, our 28th event at the venue. Singer Laura Stephenson and pianist Elspeth Wilkes delighted an audience from care homes and day centres in the local community. Cakes were very kindly provided by the local Co-op. The event raised over £100 in bucket donations.

In December our music delivery and fundraising teams joined forces for our second annual Festive MusicaliTea at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton-on-Thames, our 28th event at the venue. Singer Laura Stephenson and pianist Elspeth Wilkes delighted an audience from care homes and day centres in the local community. Cakes were very kindly provided by the local Co-op. The event raised over £100 in bucket donations.

“These sessions have really positively impacted people’s sense of wellbeing collectively. It’s something that actually enhances people’s quality of life. In that minute they are completely absorbed in surrounding themselves in the music. Thank you so much, it’s been an absolute privilege to be able to access it.”

Tracy Viljoen, Live Our Values Enabler at Oakminster Healthcare