Transforming healthcare through music-making for children & young people with complex needs

Songbirds Music UK
May 2022 Newsletter

Hello, and welcome to May’s newsletter. My name is Juliet Goldbart. I am Professor of Developmental Disabilities at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am proud to be a Director of Songbirds Music UK, and to contribute in a very small way to this exciting organisation.

The value of music in enhancing wellbeing is well-established. I have seen, in my own work with children with profound disabilities, how music is a means of communication and emotional expression in the absence of spoken language. Children react to sounds and vibrations and our skilled musicians observe closely and respond back to them, creating unique conversations.

The Songbirds team is fully committed to working in hospital and community settings with children, their families, health professionals, students and other musicians, and to sharing their experiences. We are keen to evaluate our work and to collaborate with people with shared interests. Tune in to this newsletter where we share our monthly news and updates and have a look at the Songbirds website to see – and hear what we do!

Hope you enjoy this month’s round-up of our news!

Juliet
Juliet Goldbart - Co-Director of SMUK

Songbirds Spotlight…

This month we would like to spotlight three of our wider team of musicians who have been leading our remote bi-weekly Sound Environments music sessions in Paediatric Critical Care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Polly Virr – celloist, Jess Tomlinson – clarinettist/saxophonist and Chloe Hayward – violinist have all led previous music residencies for SMUK. The trio have also been working with PEP medical students who have been able to observe their sessions on the unit. Jess describes a special moment from one of the sessions;

‘A highlight for me has been working with a patient alongside their school teacher. They were painting some flowers with finger paint and so Polly and I decided to play the “Flower Duet” by Delibes. It was a wonderful moment of connection between patient, family, school staff, play specialist, nursing staff and musicians and felt like everyone was together celebrating the wonderful flowers they were painting.’

Songbirds Share…

This month we would like to share our Vimeo video page with you.

Due to the pandemic, we were unable to deliver our usual outward-facing public events including our highly-anticipated annual Zest Fest music festival at the children’s hospital. Instead, we set up a Vimeo platform so that families and staff at the hospital could still access a rich resource of our music-making videos and performances. We commissioned our wider team of musicians to create video workshops and mini performances which were then compiled into a film by a videographer and promoted to families and staff at the hospital via fliers and posters with a QR code directing users to the page. This platform has now grown to include short films celebrating and documenting our projects and short videos from medical students from Manchester Medical School who have taken part in our annual PEP medical student training programme in Music and Communication and have created videos either saying hello and introducing themselves or a creative response such as telling a story or playing music for the children at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Our work relies on fundraising and donations and we are so grateful for any donations you are able to make, no matter how big or small. If you would like to support Songbirds Music UK and help us to continue our work, please visit our donations page by clicking below.
Thank you!

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