Hephzibah Isherwood

I discovered the power of music as effective rehabilitation from my own chronic illness. It opened doors to my ability to learn, remember, and connect with others. Now I work to help others discover this too through teaching Piano and using music within the community to promote health and wellbeing. I am continuing to train as a musician, while collaborating with other organisations to bring music into healthcare settings and increase accessibility for those who are disabled. During lockdowns I have found many extraordinary ways that music can bring a positive impact, and I am excited to develop this more.

I wrote ‘Breaking the silence’ in response to the Songbirds invitation to create something that described my experiences during lockdown. When the lockdown jolted our lives to a stop, I was struck by the silence. Silence of the usual traffic sounds, silence where there used to be busy crowds... but also a deeper, darker silence. The silence of those trapped in isolation, sickness, depression... The silence of suffering experienced alone as lockdown fractured our community. As I reached out to people in these circumstances, I found music to bring so much joy and connection again, enabling people to process their emotions, tell their story, build relationships, and laugh again. It broke the silence, not only audibly, but also emotionally in enabling people to express things that they couldn't put into words and to connect with others even from a distance. 

Lockdown, shutdown, Quiet

Cars stopped, doors shut, Silence.

Heartbreak, loved ones Alone

Will anybody break the Silence

 

Over the distance, Whispers of singing

Penetrate the pain and loneliness

Phonecalls to hospitals, Music with those alone,

Threads of song connecting us again.

 

It’s a safe place to be undone To let all the hurt just come

Yet laughter soon follows in it’s wake.

Fractured community Connects again through melody

Sharing things that words could not have said.

Taylor Clampeth

Hi my name’s Taylor and here’s a bit about me. My creative interests consist of posters, videos, slideshows, anything like that which pop out and people can’t miss because my interest in creativity is all to do with mental health so they need to stand out because they might break the stigma surrounding mental health and wellbeing. As I said I like making posters, videos, slideshows depending on what the post is about. This is important to me as I feel that the stigma around mental health is making people want to keep to themselves and creativity and nice and pretty posts show that mental health is important and everyone has feelings, that they shouldn’t be scared to share. I think creativity can help young people have a voice and share anything they want. Creativity doesn’t have any limits so it is easier to have a voice through being creative as just saying things can be daunting. Creativity is a safe way to release negative emotions and it can help young people feel less alone. Creativity has helped me during lockdown as I am helping other young people and making them feel less lonely as being in isolation due to disability or being in hospital is quite lonely so it’s a way to talk to other young people without running the risk of getting ill or getting worse.

Emily Douglas, Olivia Townell and Susie He

This is a piece of music we created in our 3rd year ‘Music in Health’ placement with Mark and Ros. We were given the season of summer to base our music around.