Activity on both Participate (for those at risk of isolation and living with conditions like dementia) and Skylarks (for those living with Parkinson’s) restarted for the ‘new term’ in September, with regular sessions continuing across the autumn. The image below shows a song composed by the Saxmundham Participate group to celebrate the restart.
Numbers have been strong across both programmes, with 33 now coming to Skylarks in Snape, the biggest this group has been. In Saxmundham, the Participate group has remained steady despite a change of venue (due to flooding of Saxmundham Market Hall) that requires a longer journey up a steep hill – a testament to their dedication to the programme.
As ever with this demographic, some group members have had to stop attending. It is sad when this happens, but often prompts messages about how much the group has meant to participants. One longtime attendee in Leiston had to stop coming this term due to a stroke. She had dementia and although she often didn’t remember the previous session, she always looked forward to the next. Her daughter wrote to thank us, saying “your music and gift to the community is amazing”.
There have been some unique one-off events this term too. In October, members of both groups took part in intergenerational workshops being run as part of Snape Residencies, one of our programmes of artist development. Musicians Hugh Nankivell and Wils Wilson were developing a new intergenerational piece to be toured around the country and used their residency to hone and trial their workshop-based performances.
12 Participate and Skylarks members came to Snape for the workshops (using our free accessible transport offer) and took part in music, colouring and puppeteering activities with a group of under-5s. They loved being involved in the activities with children and helped the artists to develop a piece that would work equally well for people in early years and later life. One participant was particularly moved by the artists playing a piece called ‘Autumn leaves’, and was delighted to be given a personal performance of it at the end.
Another unique workshop took place in November, as part of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. A cohort of eight early career musicians were taking part in a training course on community music leading co-led by regular Later Life music leader Rob Gildon. As part of the course, the young artists wrote a song for Skylarks (lyrics below), which they then taught to the group. The chance to make music with this hugely talented group of young artists was very much appreciated by the group, who raved about it afterwards.
Together we breathe, Let us fill the air. I rage, I cry I dance, I soar. Here we feel our Voices, fly.A song written by the Britten Pears Young Artists for Skylarks
For the later life programme to increase its impact, we need to increase awareness of its impact among local decision makers. We were therefore delighted to be asked to take part in East Suffolk Community Partnerships Forum’s event in Lowestoft in October. Two of our Later Life musicians worked with Kate Thubron, a consultant and dementia specialist who has been providing evaluation and training to the programme, to deliver two one-hour workshops for attendees. These replicated a typical Participate session, combining singing and songwriting with fun warmups and plenty of laughter.
They were attended by 21 people from a range of organisations including East Suffolk Council, Alzheimer’s Society, Wellbeing Suffolk, Suffolk Bright Futures and LimeSkills CIC. Although the participant demographic was different, the outcomes were the same that we see with anyone taking part in a Participate session for the first time: while they were reserved to start with, they were engaged with vociferous energy by the end. Many reported being blown away by the effect it had on them. This was a brilliant way to demonstrate, in a very direct way, the impact these groups can have. It was also brilliant to hear from many of them that these programmes are already well known and well thought of locally for their impact.
The final highlight of this period was a performance by the Skylarks group in the Snape Maltings Shops on a special Christmas shopping day event. They sang ‘Consider Yourself’ from Oliver, ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ and a song with lyrics by one of the group members set to a Flanders and Swann tune. The first two verses are below.
"Tis on a Thursday morning, that we all meet up to sing
We exercise our voices too before we can begin
We pat our chests and stamp our feet put air up under our pits
It all looks odd but helps the sound, we finish up in fits
Oh the Skylarks sing
On the marshes here in Snape
We sang with other choirs in the Concert Hall in Snape
The Skylarks sang some songs alone and we could hardly wait
Our teachers joined us in our songs we made a joyful noise
It meant we all contributed and felt like girls and boys."
