Live music is returning to St George’s Hospital this month with an exciting new collaboration with internationally acclaimed artists from Manchester Camerata.
Richard Taylor (piano and composition) and Sarah Whittingham (violin) will not only be playing for our audiences and engaging with our inpatients and staff, but devising some new music to be performed later in the year as part of our Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) celebration of 15 years of Arts for Health!
Alongside the live music, MPFT’s activity co-ordinators will be working with artists and writers to engage with our inpatients – gathering responses of their experiences of the last 18 months, what has helped them through and what are they most looking forward to. Participants will use images and text to express their feelings and these responses, stories, written and graphic descriptions will be shared with the two musicians – to provide stimulus for the final compositions.
This Colour and Crescendo art, words and music project is part of MPFT’s creative response to the pandemic, Where there’s art there’s hope, This initiative has worked hard to maintain a service to service users and staff despite lockdowns and restrictions with innovative approaches such as ‘Ring and Sing’; personalised art boxes; and an online gallery.
Jessica Kent, Arts for Health Lead said; “we are very excited about this project and to be able to deliver something really special once again for our inpatients and staff. We hope that the process and the final outcome will bring much support and wellbeing to people who have been starved of our creative arts programme for so long. The creation of two new pieces of music for Shropshire and Staffordshire will also be a great legacy for Arts for Health for the coming years.”
The St George’s concerts will take place on Wednesday 23rd June, Wednesday 14th July and Wednesday 21st July.
