We have a duty of care towards our young musicians, their families, and our staff to ensure that their wellbeing, health, and safety is always the top priority.
· Music-making can be hugely beneficial to both mental and physical wellbeing. We strive to reduce the stigma around mental health, promoting the importance of self-care and adopting good practice of physical wellbeing to keep them free from injury and pain.
· Our Relationship Manager is on hand four days a week to provide advice and support regarding our young musicians’ personal and musical development. We want to provide our community with a dedicated support network that they can always rely on.
· We have hosted a fantastic range of virtual events to motivate and inspire our musicians, keeping our community socially active and connected.
· During our Virtual Residential in February 2021, several events directly addressed methods of keeping mentally healthy, and we provided an introductory Feldenkrais workshop to all musicians – an advanced technique practicing good postural alignment for painless extended playing.
· In 2020, we launched a new award for singers in partnership with the Voces8 Foundation, who share our passion that singing can bring people together and improve mental and physical wellbeing.
· Our partners Office Space in Town who host our office in London regularly promote mental health awareness campaigns. In 2020, they founded the Lonely Workers Club - a community of friends facing the impacts of working at home alone during lockdown.
· This year, we are delighted to be partnering with MYNDUP, an organization providing easy-access counselling and personal development sessions, online, via their app. In the coming months, we will be providing all of our young musicians with access to this unique resource for free.
· We will continue to incorporate education around physical and mental wellbeing in our programme activities
· Target 3.4: Reduce Mortality from Non-Communicable Diseases and Promote Mental Health