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We’ve been up to Norwich to film one of our 2021 BBT Communities, Musical Keys and how it used its grant to develop its Sounding a Chord project at the city’s new MIND REST hub. As Chief Executive Gervase Newrick says, “Out of lockdown came some amazing research specifically around wellbeing. They found that music was used heavily as a wellbeing resource, as a way to overcome that kind of social isolation. It was very good in three main areas; venting negative emotions, self-connection and… enjoyment! We needed to capitalise on this and put it to practical use.” Find out how they did this…

In 2019 the City of London Sinfonia was one of the first recipients of a BBT Communities grant, specifically for its Wellbeing Through Music programme, developed over 30 years to take music direct into the community.

In this film we hear about the players’ interaction with their special audiences at Comfortable Classical concerts, as well psychiatric patients at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School and people in the care of St Christopher’s Hospice. In these settings, where the players’ key aim is to bring joy and respite to vulnerable people of all ages, one of the most important skills is communication and finding ways of playing music to get their attention and emotional response.

Principal clarinet, Katherine ‘Waffy’ Spencer, one of the orchestra’s longest serving members, explains how honing these particular skills ultimately enriches their own performances as orchestral musicians in the concert hall.

During the course of the Covid-19 lockdown the valuable work of CLS was unfortunately put on hold but the familiar faces of CLS Wellbeing Programme musicians can be seen each week online, via Facebook, at #ComfortableClassical at home.