Episode 4: Scottish Opera’s Memory Spinners Project

 

Show Notes

On Season 2, Episode 4, we welcome Matthew Brown, who has been the musical director of Scottish Opera’s Memory Spinners project for the past 10 years. He also directs the Strathcarron Singers, a community choir with a strong link to Strathcarron Hospice. And Rose Ann Gross, who has been involved with Memory Spinners for over 10 years and is a Company Stage Manager with Scottish Opera’s Outreach and Education department.

The show is presented by Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, who is Principal Investigator of the Network.

The show’s producer is Sophie Boyd.

This episode is edited by Brianna Robertson-Kirkland.

More details about the Network:

Website: https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/scotland-singing-for-health-network/

Get in touch: singing-for-health@rcs.ac.uk

Twitter: @ScotSingHealth

If you liked this episode, please tweet us with your thoughts and add #connectionnotperfection.

Key links:

Scottish Opera’s Memory Spinners – How to get involved and dates for the diary: https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/join-in/memory-spinners/.

Alzheimer’s Scotland: https://www.alzscot.org/.

Research Scottish Opera have been involved in:

Scottish Opera have had links with Arts 4 Dementia (a London based charity for people living with dementia, which describes its work as ‘empowerment through artistic stimulation’.

Arts 4 Dementia gave Scottish Opera some really useful feedback and supportive input in the early days of the Memory Spinners project, and they have commissioned a number of very good pieces of research into the benefits of arts participation and attendance for those with the condition. The structure and aims for Memory Spinners was influenced by their research and findings – especially their seminal report, Arts for Brain Health.

Memory Spinners is also referenced in this Arts 4 Dementia report.

Music featured in the episode:

Intro music: Free Over the Fields (ID 1622) by Lobo Loco (licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License)

Outro music: Famba Naye sung by the Dennistoun Cheyne Gang, recorded by Sophie Boyd. Famba Naye is a folk song that comes from Zimbabwe and is sung in the Shona language.  “Famba Naye” means “Stay Well, Go Well” in Shona. As the song is about parting, it is a popular song to be sung at funerals, though it can also be sung in other contexts.