Working in partnership with the team at Bristol Beacon, Bristol Care Homes has pioneered new initiatives for engagement with music for care home residents throughout the city.
During Covid restrictions, this began with live streaming of concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra to all 17,000 care homes throughout the UK. Sir Simon Rattle conducted the orchestra playing Beethoven’s 6th pastoral symphony and opened the concert with personal heart-warming words for our residents and care teams. It was all very uplifting and inspiring.
But once restrictions were lifted, the initial vision for a live concert at Bristol Cathedral was revived. On March 22, Aurora Orchestra played Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in the cathedral to an audience of residents from many care homes in Bristol.
Aurora is a different orchestra, in that they play classical concerts from memory, rather than from the printed score. This means they can move around and be positioned within the audience. It creates a wonderful immersive experience for everyone. Nicholas Collon, the conductor of Aurora, changed where all musical instruments were in the audience between each movement of the symphony so that everyone got a close-up feel of different types of musical instruments.
The concert was a great success, and an annual Celebratory City Concert for Care has now been planned each year in the Cathedral. Dates have already been agreed for May and November next year – more details soon on our Bristol Care Homes website.
