Skill sharing for the future

Our musicians have a long history of sharing their knowledge and expertise with the next generation. In 1976, our Director Sylvia Lindsay (who was also a former musician for the charity) began delivering a ‘Communication Through Music’ course to students at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

The course included hospital visits, observations, masterclasses and talks from Sylvia, some of the charity’s most experienced musicians and other organisations such as the Disabled Living Foundation.

The idea for the course came from volunteer ambassador and Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, Margaret Hubicki. The Chase Charity provided a grant to support the course through multiple years of students and into the 1980s.

This mirrors our more recent work with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, which has seen students learning from our musicians during their Music, Community and Wellbeing module. The exchange has now come full circle, with graduates who previously studied the module and are now working with Music in Hospitals & Care mentoring their peers.