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Specialist training for musicians who want to perform in hospital has been launched to “widen access” to a scheme which aims to make the environment more uplifting.<\/p>\n
The School of Popular Music (SoPM) has been doing performances and music-making sessions since January at Princess Elizabeth Hospital as part of its Healthcare Musician Programme<\/a> with Guernsey’s government and OPUS Music UK.<\/p>\n As part of this, training sessions for any musician wanting to perform at the hospital in St Martin have been set up.<\/p>\n The government said the scheme would involve OPUS members training SoPM musicians, who would then go on to provide training for other performers.<\/p>\n Any musician can take part in the scheme with year-round courses being rolled out by the school.<\/p>\n Lottie Barnes, the government’s head of creative health, said the “train the trainer” approach could help grow the scheme and “enhance the role of music in supporting islanders’ health”.<\/p>\n Tyler Edmonds, director of SoPM, said the school had been taken aback by how impactful the music sessions had been at the hospital.<\/p>\n “We all have experiences with the hospital, it might be grandparents, parents or even ourselves being in hospital,” he said.<\/p>\n “It could be a quite isolating lonely place to be and to make such a big difference to people with music, it’s incredibly powerful.”<\/p>\n OPUS chief executive Nick Cutts, who will be providing some of the training, said he was delighted to be building on the project.<\/p>\n “The thing that the patients get from it is that sense of autonomy and control, they can be a big part of that music-making experience,” he said.<\/p>\n Follow BBC Guernsey on X<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\nMore on this story<\/h2>\n
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