September & October 2013 In Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, she talks about ‘filling the well’, an essential part of nurturing the creative spirit. So, I thought I’d share with you some of the music events I’ve been to…
Sabbatical
This blog has been a bit of a desert for the last few years while I’ve been studying for my masters in music therapy. Thanks for staying with me, if you’re still reading! Whilst I’ve been keeping a reflective journal for…
End of the Beginning
Today I led my last Singing for the Brain group with the Alzheimer’s Society. I am surrounded by flowers and cards at home and feeling incredibly humbled by the whole experience. I have been with one of the groups for…
Blue Monday
Happy Blue Monday everyone! Except, according to pop-science it won’t be happy. Blue Monday is supposedly the most depressing day of the year (it’s not really). Which makes it the perfect opportunity to talk about mental wellbeing. It’s important to…
Community Music? That’s just the posh word for busking!
This was a response I had a while back from someone to whom I was trying to explain my work. But I think he had a point. I have recently started playing with a string quartet The Oxford Four, and…
Happy New Year + Update
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you’ve all had a restful break over Christmas and have found yourselves renewed. I always quite enjoy going back to work in the New Year – even though initially responding to the alarm clock for…
Things I learned
I’m at a transition point at the moment. In less than a month I will be starting on the Nordoff Robbins Master of Music Therapy degree programme, and yesterday I said goodbye to one of the groups I’ve been working…
Confident, Committed, Convincing
Back in the day, when I regularly took ABRSM graded exams on violin, an expression used to come up time and again on the exam report forms: ‘it was a convincing performance’. As a 12 year old I wasn’t entirely…
A New Venture: The Oxford Four
I’m very excited to announce a new venture – it’s been in the pipeline for some time but we’re now ready to go…. The Oxford Four is a newly formed String Quartet made up of myself (Violin II), Hugh Conway-Morris…
Singing for Wellbeing – updated flier
Summer Singing! Please take a look at my updated flier with details on how I can help you set up a singing project in your day centre, residential care home, sheltered housing, or other community centre. Download my flier as…