Projects:
Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA)
Musical Leadership Programme
COVID-19 UPDATE: COVID-19 is 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 and press the RECOVERY COLLEGE button for
further information.
The Music Mind Spirit Trust (MMST) is delighted to announce the success of their grant to the National Lottery
Community Fund.
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 to 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.
The YAMA Programme is being led by its core group of SongTrees' young musical leaders from the Junior Academy, Royal Academy of Music.
To see a YAMA Celebratory Concert, please click on the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/chika.robertson/videos/2056998354356141/
YAMA Events:
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 is
limited for these Horsham Year of Culture Festival Moo-ving Memories events, places need to be reserved in advance by emailing musicmindspirit@gmail.com or ringing 01403
824034. Proceeds benefit 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 will 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 have continued into 2020. To keep music live within the community during the pandemic, innovative new recorded material is being 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.
MMST's Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (core group from the Royal Academy of Music) work alongside talented young musical leaders, such as from Kuumba Youth Music (its lead BAME cohort) and
other outstanding young musicians from the UK, as well as with its new lead international cohort, SongTrees YAMA in Spokane, WA, USA.
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.
|