Music Bank: live music for wellbeing in the City and beyond

Music Bank

Music Bank is a Guildhall School initiative that connects our alumni musicians with people and organisations in the City of London and its neighbouring communities. Through Music Bank we commission and pay alumni to deliver live performances in settings where music can have a direct and meaningful impact on wellbeing, prioritising audiences who would not otherwise have access to live music of this quality.

Where it began: musical befriending in lockdown (2020 to 2021)

Music Bank launched in November 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a partnership with Age UK Camden. With lockdown restrictions tightening and older people living with dementia among the most isolated in the country, we matched twelve Guildhall musicians (students, staff and alumni) with twelve Age UK Camden clients to deliver a musical befriending service by phone and Zoom.

Each pairing had three calls of 45 minutes to 1 hour in length. Clients chose the music in advance, listing the genres and artists they loved, and the musicians built each call around those requests, performing live and getting to know the person through conversation. Requests ranged from reggae and calypso to traditional Scottish music, musical theatre, hymns and classical repertoire. All musicians received training and coaching from Age UK Camden before their first call.

We delivered Music Bank in this remote form through 2020 and 2021, until it was safe to bring live performance back into the room. The principle established in those first calls, that the audience shapes the music, has defined everything Music Bank has done eversince.

Moving to in person: Golden Lane Memory Group

Once in-person delivery was possible, Music Bank moved into live sessions with the Golden Lane Memory Group, which supports people living with memory problems, including dementia, Alzheimer's and brain injury. Guildhall School has now worked with the group for six years.

Each session is a one-hour performance by alumni musicians, and the programme is built directly around the group. Members request the music and instruments they would like to hear, and the musicians design the session in response. This person-led approach matters for this audience in particular: familiar and personally meaningful music is widely recognised to support memory, mood, communication and social connection for people living with dementia and related conditions, and the sessions are designed with that therapeutic value in mind.

Expanding into healthcare: St Bartholomew's Hospital

Music Bank now also delivers live performances in the waiting area of the Oncology Ward at St Bart's Hospital, for patients awaiting appointments and treatment. These are often long and anxious waits, and the aim of the sessions is to change the experience of that time: to offer something uplifting and unexpected in a clinical environment.

The performances are deliberately participatory. Patients, their companions and staff are encouraged to make requests, and our musicians respond in the moment, so that each session is shaped by the people in the room.