Nine musicians have been selected to participate in this training programme: 3 from the UK, 3 from Ireland, and 3 from Finland
# in the UK:
Nick Cutts
Nick Cutts is a musician based in Derbyshire playing bassoon and piano. Nick began his musical career as an Orchestra Manager, working as ‘Fixer’, Librarian, Concert and Stage Manager. He left the orchestral life in 2000 to establish OPUS, a non profit-making organisation dedicated to providing music-making opportunities for people of all ages across the midlands region. OPUS is renowned for the high quality of its early years music-making and music in health projects.
Nick trained with Musique & Santé in Paris, Dublin, Krakow and Manchester as part of a European funded project, exploring the skills and competencies required of a musician in healthcare settings. As Director for OPUS, Nick has delivered music residencies in Derbyshire Children’s and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. He has delivered highly acclaimed training programmes in partnership with MusicLeader for musicians wishing to work in healthcare settings.
Nick is currently undertaking further training with Musique & Santé as a trainer of musicians and healthcare professionals.
Future plans for Nick and OPUS are to continue residencies at Sheffield and Derby hospitals, while expanding practice to Leicester, Nottingham and Chesterfield hospitals. Alongside these residencies, Nick plans to deliver training to musicians and healthcare staff across the region.
Jane Bentley
Jane’s interest in music and health began whilst working on a degree in Community Arts (specialising in music) at Strathclyde University. She graduated with first class honours with her dissertation on community music in therapeutic contexts. She has studied extensively with Arthur Hull, the principal founder of the community drum circle movement, and David Darling, Grammy award winning cellist and master improviser. Last year she was awarded the first ever PhD based on drum circles and improvisation, highlighting the effects of group music making on human wellbeing.
Much of her current work as a freelance community musician involves developing music in mental health services, working across a range of hospital and community settings, from adults with dementia, to maximum-security forensic psychiatry. She also works all over the UK and internationally using music to explore community, communication, and creativity in health, educational and social care settings. She is regularly invited to present at conferences, and specialises in the role of music making in social and communicative development.
For more information on workshops and recent projects, visit www.art-beat.info
Kate Murdoch
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Goldsmith’s College in London, Kate Murdoch specializes in music activities in healthcare settings. She also leads creative music workshops for adults and children with a particular emphasis on relaxation and wellbeing.
She has been studying traditional music in Tanzania with the acclaimed Zawose family of musicians since 1999, and now uses the “ilimba” (a harp-like instrument) and voice as the basis of her work.
Kate's work in healthcare settings includes interactive music-making at the bedsides of hospice patients, patients in pulmonary sub-acute wards, and children and babies in a high dependency unit (a long-term project at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton). In
2011 she presented this emerging musician-in-hospital role at two national conferences (Germany and Scotland) and at a paediatric research symposium (Brighton).
Kate is also currently leading a Youth Music funded programme in Hastings, focusing on how music can support the emotional wellbeing of children in Early Years settings. She also performs regularly and is currently working on a new album project, 'Relax and Dream'.
# in Ireland
Music Network Trainees:
Finn MacGinty
Finn MacGinty is a professional guitarist, singer and composer and has spent fifteen years as a touring musician in the US and Japan with Irish traditional bands The Suffering Gaels, Setanta and Crumac and has recorded five albums. Finn developed an interest in using his music in healthcare contexts during a chance encounter with an ABI (TBI) stroke victim in the US. Finn witnessed the influence of music in helping to restore confidence and improve communication with stroke victims. On his return to Ireland in 2007, Finn participated in Music Network's Continuing Professional Development Programme. In 2009, Finn was selected as one of four Irish musicians to participate in a European Music in Healthcare Settings training programme which provided a series of week long training sessions in hospitals in four of European's major cities (Paris, Manchester, Krakow and Dublin) with some of the European's most experienced trainers in this field.This programme was developed and coordinated by a partnership between Music Network, Musique et Santé, France, the Royal Northern College of Music, UK and the Academy of Music Krakow, Poland and funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning fund of the European Commission.
Finn's wide range of experiences in healthcare contexts include his work with the National Concert Hall's Learn & Explore Programme where Finn, along with violinist Aingeala de Búrca, perform and engage with the clients of the National Rehabilitation Hospital. He also facilitates weekly music sessions in St Loman's 'EALA' Activity Centre in Mullingar - a centre providing occupational and therapeutic activities for clients of the mental health services as well as similar sessions in Portlaoise, Tullamore and Rathdowney. Finn is a Program Assistant with The Irish Wheelchair Association in Roscrea, providing activities that include music and IT and in 2009 he worked as a musician with Indepen-dance, a Glasgow-based integrated dance development company offering creative movement classes to people with diverse abilities, their carers, family members and volunteers.
Liam Merriman
Liam Merriman is a professional guitarist and singer. A native of Waterford, Liam’s successful performance career has seen him share a stage with high-profile performers such as Nancy Griffith, Christy Moore, Paul Brady and Donovan. A 7 CD catalogue with recordings and original material have been published and released by Polygram Records Ireland, RTÉ Music and his own independent record label: Three Rivers.
Liam is a ‘therapeutic’ musician with Waterford Healing Arts Trust at Waterford Regional Hospital. In this role, he has worked in Paediatric, Oncology, Dialysis, Medical, Geriatric, Psychiatric, Acute and Chronic, Intellectual disability, Dementia and Alzheimer’s Units. He has also worked with autistic children (Jonah Project, Co Kilkenny) and with young men with acquired brain injuries (ABI Ireland). In 2009, Liam was one of four Irish musicians to participate in a European Music in Healthcare Settings training programme which provided a series of week long training sessions in hospitals in four of European's major cities (Paris, Manchester, Krakow and Dublin) with some of the European's most experienced trainers in this field.This programme was developed and coordinated by a partnership between Music Network, Musique et Santé, France, the Royal Northern College of Music, UK and the Academy of Music Krakow, Poland and funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning fund of the European Commission. In late 2010, Liam was a key member of a team of musicians and arts administrators who successfully negotiated a pilot programme of live music in the neonatology unit at Waterford Regional Hospital – the first of its kind in Ireland. The pilot project took place in early 2011.
Gráinne Hope
Gráinne Hope is a professional cellist who has received a Bachelor of Arts from NUI Maynooth, Bachelor of Music Performance from Trinity College and DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and a Master in Cello Performance and an Artist Diploma in Cello Performance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She has performed with many orchestras in Ireland and the US including the Altoona Symphony, Erie Symphony, Soesterbeg Festival Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Orchestra of the National Concert Hall. She has performed on radio and television with José Carreras, Sarah Chang, Katherine Jenkins and numerous popular artists including The Priests, Colm Wilkinson, Bill Bailey, Ronan Tynan, Sharon Shannon and Moya Brennan.
Gráinne regularly works for the education department of the National Concert Hall, and has been involved with their ‘Parent and Toddler’ workshops and ‘Up Tempo’ project. She has coordinated with the London Philharmonic Musicians on behalf of the National Concert Hall to facilitate their ‘Musicians on Call’ Project while on their Irish visit in 2009 which took place in Care Homes in Dublin.
Gráinne is the creator, designer and promoter of ‘Kids Classics’ a series of monthly music workshops that take places at the Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght Children’s hospitals in Dublin .
# in Finland:
Laura Perälä
Freelance musician, student
Trained as a musician in flute (2005, Oulu conservatory), music pedagogue (2008, Turku polytechnic of Applied sciences). At the moment she studies music education in University of Jyväskylä.
She works regularly as a musician in Turku university hospital and care home Kotikunnas. She also works in several different ensembles as a freelance musician.
At the moment she´s doing a research about music and premature babies.
Uli Kontu-Korhonen
Uli Kontu-Korhonen holds a Master’s degree in music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. She has studied early music in master classes given by Evelyn Tubb, Michael Fields, Stephen Stubbs, Suzie LeBlanc, The Hilliard Ensemble singers and others. The beautiful tone of her clear, pure soprano never suffers as it soars to angelic heights. She is a charismatic singer who captivates and communicates with her audience as she tells her story.
Since 1997 Uli Kontu-Korhonen has been the soloist in the Oliphant ensemble devoted to medieval music. The ensemble’s repertoire ranges from 12th century monody to polyphonic ars nova. Oliphant has brought to light a wealth of medieval music previously unknown. Its discs – Herz, prich! Minne-Lieder (2010), Joie fine of pious trouvère songs (2006), music by Gace Brulé (2004) and Songs from the Crusades (2000) – have won great acclaim among audiences and critics alike for their improvisational and colourful music-making. Uli’s solo cd Praemia Lucis, The Gift of Light (2008 ) includes old Finnish hymns and music from Hildegard von Bingen.
Uli plays several medieval instruments (dulcimer, symphony, portative organ) and has been working on a medieval liturgical drama, Ludus Danielis, and the morality play Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen. She has appeared in a number of theatre and dance productions. Alongside her performances of music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque she has sung with jazz and folk musicians, and contemporary repertoire. Various crossover productions are a major item on her artistic agenda. Outside Finland she has given concerts in many parts of Europe and recorded for the radio.
Uli Kontu-Korhonen teaches early music, chamber music, ensemble conducting and singing to the music therapy students at the Turku University of Applied Sciences.
Vesa-Pekka Kuusinen
Vesa-Pekka Kuusinen is a versatile musician who has received a Master in Musicology from Turku University and Bachelor of Music Theory Pedagogue from Tampere Conservatoire. He works as a music theory teacher in Turku University of Applied Sciences and has worked as a musician with various popular artists in Finland. As a teacher he has also worked with music therapy students exploring possibilities of improvisation in therapy work.
