Music Makes Memories
As well as creating exciting live music events and curating festivals in Darlington and the surrounding areas, we also deliver a variety of community music projects.
We believe that music is for everyone and that it should be accessible to all. We are very excited to announce that we have now been successful in applying for further funding from the National Lotteries Community Fund. This will be used to run our ‘Music Makes Memories’ project. The project involves taking two community musicians into Darlington care homes and running a series of sociable, fun singalong sessions and chatting with residents about their favourite music and memories. The practitioners make notes of the discussions and these notes are then used to write the lyrics for a song for the residents featuring their precious memories. The original song is recorded and mixed in a local studio and burnt onto CDs. Our musicians then return to the care home to perform the song for the residents and have a final singalong session. Family and friends are welcome to join the sessions and our practitioners play a wide variety of material to cover everyone's tastes from music hall favourites, to rock n roll through to Abba and have even taken requests from avid Westlife and Elvis fans. This is the second time we have run this project with the kind support of the National Lottery Community Fund and it’s great to be able to bring live music to the residents at a new range of care homes.
‘Singing is known to improve lung function, relieve stress, boost your immune system and can enhance the memory of those suffering from dementia.’ Says Sarah Wilson project lead ‘It’s wonderful to help to spark those important memories and be able to run sessions that encourage social interaction and to give everyone, staff and residents a bit of a boost.
Each care home receives several copies of the song on CD plus digital copies to share and play in communal areas giving the homes and residents a legacy from the sessions that can still be shared and enjoyed long after the project has ended.
