Projects:

Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA)

Musical Leadership Programme

COVID has been allowing us all time to self-reflect, discover and appreciate our own inner gifts. We at the Music Mind Spirit Trust would like to help others through this changing and often unsettling landscape by sharing how the power of musical soundscapes can contribute positively to our lives, relationships and wellbeing.

Please visit the 'Welcome' page of https://musicmindspirittrust.com/welcome for further information.

The YAMA Programme is being led by its core group of SongTrees' young musical leaders from the Junior Academy, Primary Academy and Royal Academy of Music.

To see a YAMA Celebratory Concert, please click on the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/chika.robertson/videos/2056998354356141/

CURRENT YAMA Project: THE GREEN MAN INITIATIVE

‘GREEN MAN HO!’ is the springboard for this very exciting new music and ecology project. Launched at London’s historic Colet House on 11th June in partnership with the award-winning composer Paul Pritchard, director Mark Ross Clark & Chika Robertson, this multi-media performance featured musicians from the Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy, Primary Academy and Blaze Ensemble. The Study Society and Music Mind Spirit Trust are proud to sponsor this exciting project, in partnership with the Royal Academy of Music.

Pandemic and Pre-pandemic YAMA Events:

The Music Mind Spirit Trust (MMST) was very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund, which allowed Young Artist Musical Ambassadors to continue bringing music to others safely throughout the pandemic.

As part of the award, MMST worked collaboratively with BBC Music Day to help bring music to everyone in the UK living with dementia through the power of music to inspire, to bring us together and make a positive impact.  

MMST’s Moving Memories Dementia Concerts, a series of intergenerational ‘Musically Attuned Performances’ (MAPs) was presented in London, West Sussex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Dorset and in the USA throughout BBC Music Day Week from 23 September to 1 October (International Day of Older Persons) by SongTrees Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA) of the Music Mind Spirit Trust.

In an exciting new partnership with Bookham & Harrison’s Milk Churn (The Guardian’s ‘Top 10 Places to Eat in the Country’), a special Moving Memories event for BBC Music Day was performed on 26th September for members of the public, including those living with dementia, carers and family members. Specially selected bespoke live music by UK’s popular singer-songwriter and Professional YAMA Mentor Calista Kazuko and talented Young Artist Musical Ambassadors Natasha Hallett and Rama Suphadet, plus personalised recorded music by X-System’s cutting-edge technology, featured musical choices of the residents of Cranleigh’s Cedar Court Care Home.

Disabled access is available at the Milk Churn’s delightful ‘Parlour’, where guests were able to enjoy their award-winning Sussex Charmer cheese on toast during a musical journey down Memory Lane. Calista Kazuko has been described as “Nostalgic musicality with a gritty edge, sophisticated and innovative” (Get in Her Ears); “An undoubted talent” (Sir George Martin); “Darkly alluring, chic sonic bliss” (Fame Magazine).

Following the success of this event, there have been regular Dementia-Friendly Musical Sessions, kindly sponsored by The Milk Churn. These will be continued after the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.

As seating was limited for these Horsham Year of Culture Festival Moo-ving Memories events, places needed to be reserved in advance by emailing musicmindspirit@gmail.com or ringing 01403 824034. Proceeds benefitted music and dementia, health and wellbeing research.

MMST and the Royal Academy of Music presented a public workshop for the Young Artist Musical Ambassadors led by RAM’s Head of Open Academy and dementia specialist, Prof Julian West, on Saturday 28 September. The young musicians are being trained to go into protected environments such as care homes and hospices. This work was to be showcased at the TransAtlantic Dialogue Conference in Luxembourg in May 2021.

On Sunday 29 September, Young Artist Musical Ambassadors presented an interactive music session for residents and those living with dementia at Cedar Court Care Home in Cranleigh. 

MMST's Moving Memories dementia concert on the 24 September featured internationally acclaimed guitarist Samantha Muir and Young Professional YAMA Lara Taylor in popular duos for residents, caregivers, families and friends at Eastbury House Residential Home in Sherborne, Dorset.

To mark the end of the 2019 Music Week, a Moving Memories event by Young Artist Musical Ambassadors Elizabeth Nurse and Rebecca Sewell entertained residents of Stonehill House and the general public in Haddenham, celebrating International Day for Older Persons on 1st October. Elizabeth is the 1st female Lay Clerk at Christ Church, University of Oxford.

Regular concerts into partner care homes and community centres continued into 2020. To keep music live within the community during the pandemic, innovative new recorded material was prepared for care home residents by the young musicians. 

The Music Mind Spirit Trust is extremely grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund, Arts Council England, X-System Ltd and commercial sponsors Bookham & Harrison for their invaluable support and assistance in making the above events possible.

X-System predicts human responses to music, in particular enlivenment and mood, and creates playlists in any chosen repertoire to lead listeners gently and naturally from one state of mind and body to another of their choice. BBC Music Day's concert at the Milk Churn featured bespoke music playlists in favourite repertoires that are helping residents in care homes through the day (for example, getting going in the morning and supporting daily activities such as enjoying their mealtimes, exercising and preparing for sleep at night), thanks to Prof Nigel Osborne’s innovative work with the residents of Cedar Court, Cranleigh and Stonehill House, Haddenham.  

On the international stage, BBC Music Week was also acknowledged in Spokane, Washington (USA), via a new Trans-Atlantic dialogue between SongTrees Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMAs) of the Music Mind Spirit Trust and Holy Names Music Centre, in partnership with Spokane Public Libraries. To show their support for Music Day on 26th September at Corbin Senior Center (827 W Cleveland), the young musicians raised awareness about dementia as they enriched people’s lives globally, irrespective of age or place, through their intergenerational interviews and performances. 

New career paths are being developed through personalised mentorship links with professionals from the Royal Academy (and other conservatoires), Live Music Now, Inspiring Purpose (Creative Scotland) and VOCES Academy (UK & Denmark).

The Programme is strongly underpinned by robust scientific expertise with partners X-System Ltd (Prof Nigel Osborne CTO and Robert Ashcroft, Chair) and with Dr Lyudmila Nurse (Oxford XXI) to promote the benefits of music on health, ageing and well-being within the community.