Music can be an inspiration tool, encouraging artistic and social interaction for those living with  dementia helping to awaken emotions and memories; this Spring Turtle Song, a project for  those living with dementia, will come to Liverpool, Oxford and London. This creative music making project involves song writing, movement and singing and is spearheaded by Turtle Key  Arts, the incredible organisation who seek to use arts to improve quality of life. In 2020 Turtle  Key Arts reached an audience of 47,390 collaborating with 329 artists and involved over 1,350  participants. 

Turtle Song participants meet once a week for ten weeks and, with the help of professional  musicians and music students, write the lyrics and compose the music for their own song cycle,  ending in a live performance for friends and family which is recorded as a DVD. 

Turtle Song offers a positive outlook through an enjoyable and shared activity and gives the  brain and body stimulating exercise. It also helps to enhance the professional development of  the music students who take part in the project. Since the first Turtle Song at the Royal College  of Music in London in 2008 it has been introduced in Cambridge, Wolverhampton, Dulwich,  Hackney, Suffolk, Oxford, Stockton-on-Tees, Leeds, Norwich, Croydon, York, Reading, Newbury  and Bishop Auckland: there are now on average three held each year. 

Music can have many benefits in the setting of dementia. It can help reduce anxiety and  depression, help maintain speech and language, and enhances quality of life as well as having a  positive impact on carers. Music and emotion are linked in a powerful way; people respond to  music from a very early age, before words and language are developed, and this continues even  towards the end of our lives, when verbal abilities may be lost.

I cried silent tears of sorrow, of pride, of happiness, of loss, of admiration, of gratitude and more.  Thank you for bringing joy to my mum, for accepting her just as she is and for making her truly  happy. I have not seen her smile like that for a long time, today she was my beautiful,  intelligent, kind & caring, fun loving mum again (From the daughter of a participant in Reading  2015). 

LIVERPOOL: 

Dates 11th, 18th, 25th February 2022 

4th, 11th, 18th, 25th March 2022 

1st April 2022 

Final sharing Monday 4th April 2022 

Venue Gibberd Room, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Cathedral House,  Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, Merseyside, L3 5TQ 

OXFORD: 

Dates 21st, 28th January 2022 

4th, 11th, 18th, 25th February 2022 

4th, 11th March 2022 

Final sharing Friday 18th March 2022 

Venue Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place,  Oxford OX4 1DY 

LONDON: 

Dates 24th, 31st January 2022 

7th, 14th, 21st, 28th February 2022 

7th, 14th March 2022 

Final sharing Monday 21st March 2022

Venue Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BS 

 

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