It’s always a great pleasure to make music with Harry. Here’s one of the many benefits we see from music-making with hospitalised patients, from the parent’s perspective… Harry’s Blog
May 01
Busy week of music making
We are busily engaged as usual this week with music-making taking place at Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Kings Mill hospitals along with the ‘Taking the Lead’ project currently taking place in Staveley working with students from Springwell Community College. Great to make so many lives richer through music making.
Apr 30
St George’s Day
We were working on a ward in Leicester Hospital on Tuesday 23rd April and played our way round to a corner room where the door was wide open. Inside there was a little baby all dressed in green pyjamas. When he saw us he looked quite anxious – Who were these People? What were …
Apr 18
Music in Healthcare Settings Training
From 11th-17th April, we have been busy delivering our latest 5-day training course for musicians, exploring the skills and competencies required of a musician to work in healthcare settings. Over the course of five days, 8 trainees and 3 trainers have worked together to develop their skills, knowledge and awareness and visited the Derbyshire Children’s …
Apr 01
Music and Health Research
Some great links to research papers by Constanza Preti et al at this link here. http://imerc.academia.edu/CostanzaPreti ‘Costanza Preti, PhD, is a Research Associate at the International Music Education Research Centre (iMerc), Institute of Education, University of London. Her primary research is in music and health and includes a major study examining the impact of live …
Mar 18
New pictures and profiles…
OPUS Musicians Richard Kensington (Bodhran, Ukelele, Voice), Nick Cutts (Bassoon, Guitar, Voice) and Sarah Matthews (Fiddle, Viola, Voice) at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital – March 2013 Also new profiles and images of all OPUS musicians on our musicians pages (see links above)
Mar 05
Inspiration
When we work in hospital we never know who we are likely to meet and what reaction we will get to our music. Mostly people react positively to us when we arrive with our instruments, sometimes people join in with us but it is rare to find someone with instrument at the ready and desperate …
Feb 25
Music in Healthcare Training – Brighton
It’s a great pleasure to be spending time in Brighton this week, working alongside the lovely Kate Murdoch at the invitation of Rhythmix to deliver a week of Music in Healthcare training to a group of 10 trainees. We have a great group with broad-ranging backgrounds and interests which should make for a really rich …
Feb 18
A Family Affair – 12/2/2013
Walking onto one of the wards today myself, Richard, Sarah and Roxy observed the space and it was suggested by Sarah and Richard that we spread out around the ward which was in a horse shoe shape with private rooms on the side. This meant that as we dispersed around the room we had to …
Feb 18
Expectations
I am thoroughly enjoying doing my placement with OPUS and I have had some fantastic musical interactions with the children, their families and the staff at both Nottingham and Leicester hospital. I have also learnt a lot from taking moments to stand back and watch the OPUS musicians Nick, Richard and Sarah in their musical …
Feb 13
Taking the lead on music for wellbeing
A great evening of training and music-making last night with a group of young people and volunteers from the Drop Inn in Belper, Derbyshire. We are working with these young people, developing their musical and leadership skills and working towards taking music sessions into their local care home. A fascinating and challenging project but should …
Feb 04
Calming and interactive music – 29/1/2013
Walking through the wards this morning, we came on to one ward and Nick had gone ahead to observe the atmosphere on the ward. Whilst he was making his assessment Sarah and I began playing the song “I can see clearly now the rain has gone”. We began the song instrumentally and in a calming …
Feb 03
Day of Dance
Tuesday 29th Jan at Leicester Children’s Hospital, working with Sarah Steenson and Nick Cutts. We began work playing on Ward 12, progressed through to Ward 28 and finished the morning in Ward 14. A busy morning that finished quite late. The afternoon was productively spent only on Ward 10 for the whole time. I was …
Jan 28
Favourite song – 22/1/2013
I had a great experience at the very start of the day; we had entered the ward space already playing. As the ward was very quite I was playing at a very low volume, we had gathered round the bed of a young boy who was very much interested in the music and he knew …
Jan 23
“Can we sing another song?”
Working in Derby Children’s Hospital with Nick Cutts and Rich Kensington today we played our way along the upper wards in the morning. We met a young patient who was so relaxed and open about her music and singing, she just couldn’t get enough of making music with us. We started with “Yellow Bird” as …
Jan 23
Elevator Music….
I was working in Nottingham QMC Children’s Hospital on Tuesday this week with Rich Kensington and Sarah Steenson. We found ourselves en route from level B back to the top floor to pack our things away at the end of the day. However, our playing was not over for the day yet! We waited for the …
Jan 19
musical interaction- by Sarah S
Leicester- 15/1/2013 Today was my first day working with Richard Kensington and Sarah Matthews at Leicester children’s Hospital. It was interesting to work in this new environment; the staff at Leicester’s Children’s Hospital were very welcoming and enthusiastic towards the musicians and it was inspirational to see photographs of some of the work Opus had …
Jan 17
Tuesday 15th Jan – Winding the Bobbin Up
A very busy day in hospital and so many potential reports to write…….so I shall choose one scenario from our afternoon visit to intensive care. I was working with Richard today and our short-term placement student, Sarah Steenson. We were invited in to meet a very enthusiastic and welcoming staff and a very full room …
Jan 17
Friday 11th Jan
Friday’s visit to hospital allowed us to visit a young man in his teens with special needs. We began with ‘Zamina’ and played to him a few times through. The Play Specialist stayed with us the whole time and produced from the music box, a few different hand held instruments for the patient to try…a …
Jan 17
Music in Healthcare Training Opportunity – 11th-17th April 2013
We are pleased to announce that our next Music in Healthcare Settings training programme for musicians will take place on 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th and 17th April. This will take place in Derby, UK, with part of the time spent at the Royal Derby Hospital/Derbyshire Children’s Hospital. A full brief and application form are attached …
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