Care Home concerts

This year, Bristol Ensemble are hosting another round of ‘BE Together’ concerts in care homes across Bristol and the local region.

As a continuation of last year’s successful pilot project, ‘BE Together’ brings live orchestral music, collaboration, and creativity, to older people in different settings.

This year, we are also hoping to provide music to older people with dementia in the community and run a pilot to bring children from Preludes Music with older people in a community setting to create a model for intergenerational music.

Music in Care Homes

The activity with care homes will bring a quartet of musicians (a singer, pianist, violinist, and cellist) to six care homes in Bristol and the surrounding area.

Musicians will perform a varied programme of recognisable and poignant pieces, designed to inspire memories, delight, bring joy, and offer comfort and solace to audiences. The programme will feature classical pieces, music from theatre or film, and/or popular music. Concerts will be around one hour-long.

We prioritise homes in economically-deprived areas, or that have a need for this type of experience based on their residents and the challenges faced, so we can ensure we are reaching those with the greatest need.

Bristol Ensemble in the community

In addition to the activity in care homes, we are hoping to bring music by Bristol Ensemble musicians to older people with dementia (and their families/carers) in community settings.

Each visit would be tailored to the recipient group and involve a performance by four professional musicians who play for the Bristol Ensemble, plus joint musical or singing activities.

Preludes Music in the community

A final element of ‘BE Together’, is a new initiative to develop a model for intergenerational musical activity.

Preludes Music, the Bristol Ensemble’s education programme, works with over 4,000 local children every year. We want to bring some of these children together with older people and create opportunities for meaningful collaboration and interaction via music.

In the future, we will look to develop and expand the Preludes project to other groups, and potentially combine the two aspects by bringing children into care homes or to community dementia services.

We are grateful to The Grateful Society for their support towards this project.