Music for Life
Music for Life is an internationally renowned creative music-making programme for people living with dementia and their families, friends, and carers.
Our vision is a world in which the human rights of all people living with dementia are respected and upheld, where they are treated with dignity and fully included in society. We play our part by creating music activity for and with people living with dementia, which is fully inclusive of people whatever their stage or type of dementia.
We aim to enhance the wellbeing of all those involved by enabling creative agency, a sense of purpose, and meaningful connections with others. We also want to support carers and musicians in their journeys to better understand the experiences of people living with dementia, and to help them to improve their confidence in supporting them.
Founded by Linda Rose in 1993 and led by Wigmore Hall since 2009, Music for Life encompasses a wide range of creative music projects in care settings, community settings, online, and at Wigmore Hall.
Please support the work of Music for Life to ensure that we can continue to help people living with dementia and their carers.
Donations of any size make such a valuable difference. Whatever you feel able to give is enormously appreciated
I would like to donate:
Music for Life Projects
We work collaboratively with care homes to lead projects that provide opportunities to explore new and creative ways of connecting and communicating.
Our improvisation-based projects with groups of residents and staff remain at the heart of the programme, with additional activity designed to complement this work. In these projects, a team of 3 professional musicians work alongside a group of people living with dementia and care staff who come together to improvise music over a series of weeks. We prioritise working with individuals who are at the more advanced stages of dementia and may be socially isolated, disengaged or facing significant communication difficulties.
I think it is beneficial to staff and residents. It is relieving. It just gives you this calm. Everything else goes away and you’re just in that moment. Usually, you’re always thinking about the next thing…I’ve enjoyed this session very much. It’s so important for us.
Care Staff Member
I think we get more medicine from this than anything they put in bottles and pills.
Person Living With Dementia
During the Coronavirus pandemic, we adapted our practice and introduced a range of activity that can take place remotely, enabling us to continue to connect with residents and staff in meaningful ways. We interviewed a musician and staff member who worked together online – you can view the video here.
In partnership with Resonate Arts and the Royal Academy of Music, we lead creative music projects for people who are living in their own homes but may be at risk of increased social isolation. Participants are engaged through Resonate Arts, who provide support before, during and after each project. Participants are often new to dementia services, and the projects provide a relaxed environment in which people can take part in an activity in their local community, as well as providing links for participants to other opportunities that Music for Life has to offer.
The sessions are led by musicians from our Music for Life team alongside students from the Royal Academy of Music, developing the skills of the emerging workforce. Before the music session begins, participants are welcomed for tea and coffee, which encourages social interaction and provides a space for new friendships to form and develop. The sessions are responsive to each group and are shaped collaboratively with participants, but typically use a theme or topic for creative inspiration and include a combination of improvisation, exploration of instruments, performances of existing repertoire, lyric writing, singing, poetry and visual arts.
It makes me want to live on...
Person Living With Dementia
It gave us a purpose to get out and enjoy lovely company.
Person Living With Dementia
It has given me a different perspective to see the value of music in culture and society and in a social sense.
Royal Academy of Music Musician
Music for the Moment is a monthly concert series led in partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, Resonate Arts and St Marylebone Parish Church.
Music for the Moment concerts aim to be fully inclusive of people living with dementia. Everyone is welcome, however, we ask our audiences to join us in fully supporting those who are living with the condition. Concerts are informal and relaxed: performers introduce the pieces they are playing, seating is unreserved, and audience members are welcome to come and go as they wish.
Concerts are performed by musicians from the Royal Academy of Music and are free to attend with complimentary refreshments served before and after the concert, creating space for conversation and connection between audience members and performers.
Most concerts are held at St Marylebone Parish Church, 17 Marylebone Road, Strand NW1 5LT and Wigmore Hall hosts some concerts throughout the year.
Click here to watch the Music for the Moment concert performed by the Asaka Quartet at Wigmore Hall on Friday 16 February 2024.
The atmosphere was warm and welcoming from the moment [we] stepped into the foyer. [We] very much enjoyed chatting to the horn player who was giving the concert with an accompanist while having refreshments before the concert. This pre-concert socialising made [it] a real 'day out'.
Friend of a Person Living With Dementia
Upcoming concerts
Fri 1 November 2024
Wigmore Hall
Fri 29 November 2024
St Marylebone Parish Church
Fri 17 January 2025
St Marylebone Parish Church
Fri 21 March 2025
St Marylebone Parish Church
Fri 25 April 2025
St Marylebone Parish Church
Fri 4 July 2025
St Marylebone Parish Church
Singing with Friends is a choir for families living with dementia led in partnership with Resonate Arts. Founded in 2017, sessions are led in a responsive and person-centred way, drawing on the diverse heritages of the choir’s members and learning songs in many different languages. Whilst there is a strong focus on healthy vocal technique and exploring an ambitious range of repertoire, Singing with Friends is just as much about connecting in the moment through singing, and each voice and personality contributes to the spirit and dynamic of the group.
Sessions also include social time, movement, poetry readings, and live performances from visiting musicians. The group meets weekly in-person at Wigmore Hall, and our online Singing with Friends choir meets once a fortnight.
We offer training opportunities for emerging musicians (with a guest musician from the Royal Academy of Music at each session and emerging vocal leaders supported across a series of sessions).
The group chose the name Singing with Friends and gives a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage twice a year, and have shared many other musical successes together including taking part in a recording for BBC Radio 3, featuring in an article for The Telegraph, being selected as a finalist for a Dementia Care Award in the Outstanding Arts and Creativity in Dementia Care category, and performing at Buckingham Palace.
Singing with Friends is currently open to residents living in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea – please contact Resonate Arts if you are interested in joining the choir (please note, there may be a waiting list).
Resonate Arts: 0300 030 7212 / info@resonatearts.org
It widens the horizons of my life. It gives me a lot of happiness and it keeps me going.
Person Living With Dementia
It makes me feel taller and younger.
Person Living With Dementia
Music for Life Monday Afternoons is a warm and welcoming group that meets to support and inspire each other through music-making. Our group is made up of people living with a young onset dementia, their families and carers, and musicians and facilitators from Wigmore Hall’s Music for Life programme.
Together we make music that reflects us as a group, with our stories, experiences and ideas leading to shared conversation and creativity. The sessions provide an open space for everyone to contribute in whatever way they are most comfortable. You don’t need to be a musician to take part, and there is no pressure to participate in any particular way.
Our team includes a facilitator who is experienced supporting those affected by young onset dementia and is on hand to help everyone in the sessions. Please get in touch if you would like more information.
WHEN AND WHERE
Monday Afternoons meet once a month at Hillside Church in Wimbledon at 2.15 – 4.15pm (including time for refreshments either side of the music session).
Location: Hillside Church, 37 Worple Road, Wimbledon, SW19 4JZ.
The nearest train station is Wimbledon. There is no parking at the venue, but on-street parking is available nearby.
BOOKING
Attendance is free, but booking is required. To find out more or to book a place, please contact the Wigmore Hall Learning team:
Email: learning@wigmore-hall.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7258 8240
Out of the Ordinary is an innovative online project led in partnership with Wigmore Hall, the Royal Academy of Music, and Rare Dementia Support (a world-leading, UK-based service provided by the UCL Dementia Research Centre (DRC) and partners and funded by The National Brain Appeal).
Out of the Ordinary brings together musicians from Music for Life, students from the Academy, and individuals from UCL’s Rare Dementia Support groups, and creates space for everyone involved to explore ways in which they can nurture their own and each other’s wellbeing through music and the expressive arts.
The project is led by Music for Life musician Caroline Welsh, whose ideas inspire Out of the Ordinary, and was first piloted as part of the Music for Life programme in Autumn 2020. The project was developed in response to the success of our online Monday Afternoons workshops, and the need for activities that offered meaningful and creative connection in a time of increased isolation.
Out of the Ordinary sessions take place fortnightly throughout the year with individuals taking part from across the UK. Please contact Hermione Jones (hjones@wigmore-hall.org.uk) for more information.
I felt included from the very first minute of the first session ... I felt like I could make important contributions ... and that anything I contributed would be valued
Participant
I felt connected, engaged and supported. I felt that I was being seen as myself, not defined by my diagnosis…This has been the most helpful intervention I have had since my diagnosis. I think is because it was an opportunity to be with others who have similar diagnoses, but without these being the focus of the group. In the past I have sometimes found professional musicians intimidating, but this was certainly not the case here.
Participant
It brings a creative experience right into our homes which is invaluable when our activities are restricted by disability and we can no longer do what we used to be able to do.
Participant
We strongly believe in the value of sharing our experience and knowledge with others in order to contribute to positive change in the arts, health and care sectors. Much of the success of our work is dependent on strong partnerships, which we hold with Jewish Care, the Royal Academy of Music, Resonate Arts and many others.
We have supported many other organisations in the development of their own work inspired by the Music for Life model. We are currently working in partnership with Music Circles (Switzerland).
If you are interested in learning more about our work supporting other organisations, please contact Lydia Nickalls, Senior Programme Manager (lnickalls@wigmore-hall.org.uk).
Music for Life has been the focus of several research studies including a recent research project supported by the NHS and the Wellcome Trust. You can read the research article by following this link. https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/60/6/1115/5669944
You can also complete a free online course developed by UCL and Created Out of Mind, which Music for Life contributed to, called ‘Dementia and the Arts: Sharin Practice, Developing Understanding and Enhancing Lives by following this link.
In Autumn 2020 we worked with Unmapped to evaluate the effect of a remote Music for Life project on care staff wellbeing. You can read the report by following this link.
If you are a musician interested in being involved with Music for Life, please click here for details of the Music for Life Training & Development Scheme.
Play Your Part
Wigmore Hall is committed to playing its part in building a dementia-friendly society, and we lead regular dementia awareness training with our staff and musician teams. We also have an access and inclusion group to create space in which we can regularly review how to make our environment, facilities, and programming more accessible to people living with dementia.
We encourage everyone to learn about dementia to help support those living with dementia in their community. A simple way you can do this is to become a Dementia Friend.
You can also visit Rare Dementia Support for learning and training resources about rare dementias.
We are incredibly grateful to all our funders who have so generously supported Music for Life over the years and who have enabled us to continue to develop and lead work which is making a difference to the lives of many.
Please support the work of Music for Life – donations of any size make such a valuable difference. Whatever you feel able to give is enormously appreciated.
I would like to donate:
If you would like to discuss ongoing giving opportunities or the possibility of leaving a legacy gift to Music for Life in your Will, please contact Marie-Hélène Osterweil, Director of Development (mhosterweil@wigmore-hall.org.uk).
We would like to thank the following for their support of Music for Life in 2024/25:
The Howard de Walden Estate
The Mercers’ Charitable Foundation
George Meyer
Michael Watson Charitable Trust
Milton Damerel Trust
Julia Schottlander
S E Franklin Charitable Trust No.3
The Tertis Foundation in memory of Lillian Tertis
The Linbury Trust
In memory of Michael Warburg
The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
Westminster Culture and Community Grants
And the many other donors to the programme
We are immensely grateful for this support and all the donations which we receive throughout the year. Thanks to you, the Music for Life programme continues to thrive.
Upcoming Music for the Moment concerts:
- Music for Life: Sharing our Stories – Celebrating 30 years of learning and connection
This special celebratory event was live streamed on 10 February 2023 to mark 30 years of Music for Life.
Follow the links below to watch specific sections of the event:
Out of the Ordinary – A live online session with Out of the Ordinary participants.
Panel Discussion – Participants, musicians, staff, and researchers involved with Music for Life explored what makes Music for Life distinctive and why it has ongoing importance.
Singing with Friends – An informal performance from our Singing with Friends choir. - Music for Life: The Power of Creativity for People Living with Dementia
In July 2019 our Director of Learning and Participation, Daisy Swift, gave a talk on the power of creativity for people living with dementia, for Tessitura Network’s Innovator Series, as part of the Tessitura Learning and Community Conference in Chicago. - Rare Dementia Support Webinar, February 2022
Out of the Ordinary leaders Caroline Welsh and Hermione Jones spoke about the project in this Rare Dementia Support webinar. - Music for Life & Jewish Care - online sessions with individual residents
Lucy (Music for Life musician) and Danuta (Jewish Care staff member) reflected on the experience of leading online sessions with individual residents, staff, and musicians during the Covid-19 pandemic.