Volunteers’ Week: Julie Royce

This Volunteers’ Week we are celebrating the fantastic people who volunteer their time and expertise to help share live music with people in health and care settings across the UK.

Julie Royce tells us about her experience volunteering at our MusicaliTea event in December in Walton-on-Thames.

“It was a very cold December day in 2022 when I had my first encounter with a live music experience from Music in Hospitals & Care, but it soon warmed me through!  Singer-guitarist Hedley Kay entertained us with a diverse range of wonderful music. With Irish folk songs to please Rita from Dublin and Breda from Cork, classics such as Hallelujah and What A Wonderful World, to upbeat numbers from Neil Diamond and The Beatles. He even managed a rendition of Chopin on his guitar!

The twinkly auditorium of the Riverhouse Barn was full – there were Hedley’s biggest fans from the local care home who he has shared live music with in the past and a group who had come with ‘the purple angels’, as well as local regulars.

As Hedley began his medley of songs, the atmosphere visibly changed.  People were smiling, singing and clapping along, and some of us even lit up our mobile phones to sing along with Sweet Caroline at the end. It was so good, so good, so good!

I’m looking forward to being a local ambassador for the charity to help contribute to as many people as possible experiencing the healing power of live music.”