Overview Programme

A one-day symposium for music and healthcare professionals exploring the role of live music in promoting wellbeing in community settings and the effects of live musical performance and performer interaction in hospital environments.

WEDNESDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2004 CHELSEA AND WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL LONDON
 
A wealth of high-quality work is currently taking place in a wide range of healthcare settings across the UK in the field of music and wellbeing, and more widely in arts and health.  This important one-day symposium presented by the Association of British Orchestras with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital provides a unique opportunity to hear from a range of professionals in both the health and arts sectors on best practice models of partnership working, creative projects and sustainable programmes.

Following an introduction to the area of music and wellbeing by symposium chair and founding member of the Medici Quartet Professor Paul Robertson, delegates will explore a number of best-practice case studies highlighting the valuable work being undertaken by orchestras, conservatoires, local authority music services, primary care trusts and hospitals including the work of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts, which itself runs one of the few hospital programmes in the UK to feature live music.

Dr Rosalia Lelchuk Staricoff Scientist Consultant reveals the findings of two recent and highly relevant reports funded by the King's Fund and Arts Council England examining the array of existing scientific literature on arts and health.  In a further opportunity to network with colleagues, break-out sessions will consider the role that orchestras, musicians and healthcare professionals can - and do - play in the promotion of wellbeing.  If 'art' in its broadest sense really is absent in the curriculum of those entering tomorrow's medical profession, what can the arts and health sectors do today to ensure that innovative, exciting and valuable projects in this field continue to be created and promoted in the widest possible of contexts?

The day closes with a hands-on guide to starting new initiatives or broadening existing programmes from researching and devising to implementing and evaluating projects involving live musical performance and the healing environment.