Manchester Camerata has announced the re-launch of its Music Café at the Monastery in Gorton. The free, weekly music making sessions will return on Wednesday, May 18, coinciding with Dementia Action Week (May 16-22).
Led by specially trained Camerata musicians and music therapists, the café offers support to those living with dementia, as well as their families and carers. The work of the Manchester-based orchestra in creating these classes is funded by McLay Dementia Trust.
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Dementia Action Week represents Alzheimer's Society's biggest and longest running awareness campaign. Each year, it works with individuals and organisations across the UK to encourage people to 'act on dementia', and this year’s theme is ‘diagnosis.’
Lizzie Hoskin, Head of Community at Manchester Camerata, said: “We’re so pleased to be able to relaunch our Music Café this month, in Dementia Action Week. As we saw first-hand when the cafes first began in both Gorton and in Wigan, these music-making sessions make such a positive impact to those living with dementia and also their carers.
“Our musicians and community team are really looking forward to welcoming past and new friends to The Monastery, sharing a cup of tea and making music again in the amazing Great Nave - and even have a bit of a dance! We’re really proud to be able to make this Music Café possible with thanks to the generosity of the McLay Dementia Trust.
“It’s so exciting to see the positive impact our year-round community programme and life-enhancing dementia work is having.”
Due to the initial success of the initiative in Gorton, Manchester Camerata has since launched a sister dementia music café in Wigan, at the Museum of Wigan Life. During these weekly meet-ups, new songs and tunes are spontaneously created by the participants through improvised rhythms and songs, guided along the way by professional musicians and therapy team.
Whilst bringing joy to those involved, the café sessions also offer much-needed respite to families who may have little or no support, while also providing a free and safe space in which to meet others in a similar situation. At the sessions, partners and families of those living with dementia are shown how music can help to reconnect them to their loved ones, and how valuable music is when used as a common language when speech is sometimes no longer available.
As well as supporting Dementia Action Week, the Manchester-based orchestra is committed to enhancing the lives of those with Dementia all year round through a number of community projects. One such initiative is its award-winning dementia-music programme, Music in Mind.
Launched over 10 years ago in partnership with the University of Manchester and Professor John Keady, its aim is to create ways in which music can be used as a tool to improve the physical and mental health of those living with dementia. Since its inception, it has been rolled out to care homes across Greater Manchester and an online version was created during lockdown to offer training and skills for staff who could then learn to run their own music sessions for care home residents.
Manchester Camerata’s Music Café runs weekly at the Monastery in Gorton on Wednesdays between 10am – 12pm, starting on May 18. Wigan’s Soul Time Music Café runs fortnightly on Mondays until August at the Museum of Wigan Life.
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