Professor Robert Winston
Internationally renowned for his research in the field of reproductive medicine, Professor Robert Winston is also a keen amateur musician and Chairman of the Royal College of Music.
Lord Winston has earned a reputation as a gifted communicator, committed to improving public understanding of science through popular television programmes and books for a lay readership. The many public positions he has held over the past thirty years include the Presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005.
Now Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, Lord Winston has been visiting professor at a number of American, Australian and European Universities. Currently Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, he has been awarded honorary doctorates at 14 universities.
Lord Winston’s passion for making music was illustrated recently by the hit BBC1 series Play it Again in which he was coached on the saxophone by John Harle, Sir John Dankworth and Courtney Pine before playing the challenging solo in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to a packed Royal Albert Hall; he regularly plays in the Imperial College Wind Band.
Lord Winston is a great advocate for the benefits of music making to individual and social wellbeing, and a champion of RCM Sparks, the RCM's Learning and Participation programme. We were delighted that he joined us as our keynote speaker at this event.
Professor Norma Daykin
Professor Daykin is a social scientist working at the University of the West of England, and its first Professor of Arts in Health, presented with the Royal Society of Public Health Award in 2008 for her contribution to music and health research. Norma’s current focus is arts and health and she leads a multidisciplinary research programme at the University of the West of England.
She has undertaken a wide range of studies exploring: working conditions and health for musicians; the role of music and arts in areas such as cancer care, mental health, primary care and dementia care. Her current work includes a three year study with Live Music Now, funded by Big Lottery Research, exploring the impact of music on mental wellbeing and attitudes to offending among young people in youth justice settings. On behalf of Youth Music Norma and her team are undertaking an evidence review of the impact of music projects on young offenders. She is also leading a two year Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Willis Newson, a leading UK arts management company, that seeks to develop evaluation skills and capacity in evaluation for the arts and health sector. Her next project will involve exploring music and arts as tools for service development in the field of speech and language therapy.
Aside from her scientific and academic credentials, Norma is a saxophone player and composer, and MD of the Bristol Reggae Orchestra. Her musical interests are in contemporary jazz as well as latin and afrocuban rhythms, and she has written for a wide range of ensembles from amateur groups to professional big bands.
Alan Tavener
Alan Tavener is Director of Music at the University of Strathclyde, where he combines teaching, research, concert promotion and ensemble direction including Strathclyde University Chamber Choir (the group for which James MacMillan composed the Strathclyde Motets). As Organist and Choirmaster of Jordanhill Parish Church, he also directs a community choir to serve the locale as well as the church. In 1982, he co-founded the professional vocal ensemble Cappella Nova, with whom he has made a speciality of conducting the work of the 16th century composer Robert Carver, and made 12 CD recordings principally of historic and contemporary Scottish choral music.
Recent projects have included the recording of a solo organ CD, the direction of a Masterclass for Student Choral Directors at the Moscow Conservatoire, the direction of renaissance Scottish music for the BBC TV series Grace Notes with Phil Cunningham, and the initiation of ongoing investigative research into the holistic benefits of choral singing.
Edward Caswell
Edward Caswell is a versatile and widely respected choral conductor and chorus master, regularly guesting throughout the UK and Europe. He works as chorus master and conductor with Netherlands Radio Choir, NDR Chor (Hamburg), MDR Rundfunkchor (Leipzig), the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Chor, SWR Vokalensemble (Stuttgart) and the BBC Singers. He was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus from 2008-2010.
Based in Scotland, Edward is a Council member of the Association of British Choral Directors (ABCD). He works as a lecturer in the Department of Vocal Studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and teaches singing at the University of Glasgow. As Outreach Director of Cappella Nova he conducts the Scottish Plainsong Choir and leads workshops across Scotland. He directs the course ‘Health and Wellbeing through Song’ at the University of Strathclyde.
Kathryn Deane
Kathryn is Director of Sound Sense, a membership organisation that provides support to organisations and individuals who help people make music in their communities through music workshops and teaching.
Stuart Brown
Stuart has been involved in singing since he was pressganged as a boy treble at school. He sings Tenor with Folkestone Choral Society and Cantores Dominicae, a chamber choir. He has served in a voluntary capacity as Chairman of Making Music South East since 2004. In 2003 he became involved with a small research group working to identify and understand the value of participatory singing to support health and wellbeing, which developed into the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts & Health at Canterbury Christ Church University. In 2005 he started a charity, Sing For Your Life, to deliver programmes developed by the research centre to support older people affected by long term conditions, through a network of Silver Song Clubs. There are now 50 Silver Song Clubs in England and similar groups in Finland & Western Canada. The majority of Club members have Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease but models are being developed to help people with Parkinson's Disease, respiratory disease and mental health conditions. Stuart has extensive experience of developing partnerships between a charity wand NHS and Local Authorities.
Adrian Bawtree
Adrian is Director of Music at Christ's Hospital. After 22 years in the music busines he still retains his passion for teaching the organ, giving solo organ recitals and accompanying choirs. He is currently engaged in schools outreach work in conjunction wih the Royal College of Organists. He has held many choral and orchestral conducting positions, currently serving as guest conductor for the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra. Adrian is passionate about intergenerational music, inspired by his work as a freelance facilitator with the Silver Songs Clubs set up by Sing for your Life, for which he is now a non-executive Director. He has also worked as a tutor at the Orphus Centre, a performing arts organisation for people with disabilities. Adrian will be taking up a full time appointment as Programme Director with Sing For Your Life in September 2011.
Lilli Brodner-Francis
Lilli has worked with the Music for Health team at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) since 2010, managing the college’s training programme for RNCM students and professional musicians to develop the necessary skills to make music with and for people in health and social care settings.
George Anderson
George is a writer and communications consultant who was part of the team which launched Big Noise – Sistema Scotland.
Kathryn Deane
Kathryn is director of Sound Sense, the UK professional association for community music and musicians.
Gregor Henderson
Gregor works as an adviser and consultant to a number of UK and overseas Government Departments, public, community, private sector and NGO organisations on mental health and wellbeing. Part of his current work is advising the UK Department of Health in England on public mental health and wellbeing. He is also a policy adviser to Mental Health Europe and an adviser to a Scottish Government funded project on culture, wellbeing and public health at Glasgow University (www.afternow.co.uk). Gregor writes on mental health, wellbeing, social and public policy issues and lectures across the UK, Europe, and internationally.
Kate Murdoch
Kate Murdoch specialises in music for wellbeing using voice and 'ilimba' (a harp-like instrument), following studies in Tanzania, and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has a particular interest in music making in acute healthcare settings, including babies and children, and end of life, and has been leading activities in hospitals, and other settings. Kate will shortly begin training as a trainer of musicians in healthcare with Musique & Santé (Paris) and the RNCM, in an EU-funded programme, and is leading a Youth Music-funded project exploring wellbeing for early years children in Hastings. www.kutuliamusic.org.
Jonathan Ray, Superact
Jonathan’s background is in radio broadcasting both locally and nationally. He has worked for the BBC and commercial radio. His interest in the link between arts in health and wellbeing developed from his broadcast work and his own experience of being a patient in hospital. This has driven his desire to research, create and develop elements within an arts framework, which help patients and staff in the healthcare environment. He is Superact’s Project Manager for Health and Wellbeing and is currently working with on project ideas in partnership with Making Music.
Ken Scott
Ken has enjoyed and supported choral singing, as a non singer, for almost 40 years. Experienced as a business consultant helping organisations to improve performance, he has a keen interest in the Arts and Health, and is Chair of Maidstone Area Arts Council. His role as Strategy Director for Making Music has a keen focus on Making Music's response to its changing environment, and the growing importance of third sector activity in social wellbeing. Ken sits on the National Initiative on Music and Health, of which he is a founding member with Robin Osterley, representing Making Music.
Ruth Sidgwick, Arts Programme Manager, North Bristol NHS Trust
Ruth has worked for a range of organisations including Welsh National Opera, the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, small community arts groups and many more. She is passionate about the transformative qualities of arts interventions for everyone involved: “Whatever changes there might be in national and local government policy, revenue streams or the whims of management, the interaction between ordinary people and professional artists never fails to surprise, fascinate and inspire me”.
Anne Suggate, 20,000 Voices
Anne Suggate has been Song Manager for 20,000 Voices since 1993, when it was a project. Since then Anne has developed 20,000 Voices into a company and a charity, which now works with around 8,500 voices each year, encouraging participation in singing for all ages and abilities, and in a wide range of styles. Anne also works with singers - running two evening community choirs and a Silver singing group, as well as delivering workshops with young people and adults.
Rachel Verney, Nordoff-Robbins
Rachel was a piano student at the Royal College of Music in 1971 when she heard Paul Nordoff, American pianist and composer, and Clive Robbins, a teacher of children with special needs, talk about their pioneering work in music therapy. Intrigued and inspired, Rachel knew instinctively that this was the work she wanted to do. In 1975 she trained as a music therapist on the first full-time ‘Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Training Course’ and for the past 35 years she has worked as a music therapy practitioner, educator, supervisor and mentor. Her music therapy practice has been with people of all ages in a multitude of different medical, social care, education and community settings both in the UK and abroad. She is currently Director of Music Services for the Nordoff Robbins charity, responsible for the development of the charity’s music services nationally.
Katherine Waumsley, the Common Wheel Trust
Katherine is the Music Officer for Glasgow based mental health charity Common Wheel, and since joining the organisation in 2005 she has been instrumental in developing an approach for music making with people with dementia and older people in psychiatric hospitals. She is also a self-employed community musician, with experience of working with a wide range of groups including adults with additional support needs, pre-school children and people doing prison sentences. Born in Inverness in 1981, Katherine also performs in Glasgow’s Gamelan Naga Mas and with freak folk singer songwriter Jo Mango.
Alistair Wilson, Gartnavel Royal Hospital
Alistair was a founder of the mental health charity Common Wheel, established in 2000 with the aim of enhancing the lives of people with mental health issues by providing opportunities to engage in meaningful and productive activities. The initial focus of the organisation sought to explore the therapeutic effects of recycling and repairing bicycles, and the ways that this could be used to provide meaningful activity for people recovering from a mental health issues and other illnesses, and to support them to develop core skills.
Stuart Wood, Barchester Nordoff Robbins Initiative
Stuart qualified as a music therapist at the Nordoff Robbins Centre in London in 2000. In 2005 he started the Barchester Nordoff Robbins Initiative (BNRI), a unique collaboration between the UK’s premier healthcare company and Nordoff Robbins. Today this brings music therapy to 20 nursing care centres, along with developing and researching new innovations in music therapy, musicality training and community music. Stuart writes for specialist music therapy textbooks and journals, and other music publications. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences in the UK and is a student on the Nordoff Robbins PhD Programme, at City University. He also teaches a little, on the Nordoff Robbins music therapy training programme, and at the University of Health Sciences, Sapporo, Japan.
