Emily Burridge is a virtuoso cellist, composer and arranger crossing genres between classical, folk and world music. Her performance repertoire for solo cello includes classics as in the Suites for unaccompanied cello by JS Bach and a whole roster of mellow cello tunes with her arrangements of classical and popular music.

In November 2019 a reviewer wrote, “Emily Burridge lifts the subtle art of cello to new dimensions with her inspirational, moody, soulful and joyous musicianship.” Find out more on Emily’s website, including viewing videos or listening to clips of her music.

View videos made by Emily for our ‘Elevate artists at home’ below.

Jane plays the harp and ukulele to accompany songs from 18th, 19th and 20th century folk music, as well as all 20th century styles of music. She currently enjoys playing music and singing with patients at Yeovil District Hospital and Bridport Community Hospital, always encouraging participation, unless just gentle harp music is required.

She is a founder of Right to Play, a group of musicians who are currently funded to play music at nursing homes, the hospital, Stroke Club in Bridport and a Tripudio movement to music exercise class for people with physical challenges.

Jane is also an oboe and saxophone player with the Arranz Ensemble based in Bridport who play live music composed by Robert Lee for silent movies.

View videos made by Jane for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our Youtube channel.

Liv is a community musician and Co-Director of Music for Wellbeing CIC alongside Kevin Plummer and Chris Cook. Liv has had a passion for working for people with dementia since her teens, when her grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s-type dementia, and especially about the power of music to enhance quality of life. She is also an Associate of Dementia Pathfinders and trains people in Circle Dance in Dementia and Dementia Awareness.

The main areas she specialises in are Early Years, community singing, people with longer term health conditions (dementia, respiratory conditions and Parkinson’s) and intergenerational work. She has worked with various organisations, including Westminster Arts, Age Exchange, Historic Royal Palaces, Leighton House Museum and Alzheimer’s Society delivering music, movement, reminiscence and cross-arts projects. She is also a trainer in these areas and has run training sessions for community musicians and care workers in how to incorporate these techniques into their own work.

She is currently delivering sessions for the Wiltshire Celebrating Age project as well as numerous local groups and organisations. Music for Wellbeing CIC and Friends of Salisbury Medical Practice are working in partnership to deliver ‘Sing and Breathe Salisbury’, a singing for lung health project across Salisbury.

Liv plays the cello, highland bagpipes, ukulele and sax, and uses singing in her community music work. She is currently undertaking a PhD in intergenerational music within a care home setting at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

View videos made by Liv for our ‘Elevate artists at home’ below.

Frankie has been working as a community musician singing and performing in care homes and hospitals since graduating from her music degree back in 2012. She works in a patient-led way, talking to patients about their musical tastes and picking songs to accommodate them and she enjoys hearing the memories and stories that her singing evokes. Frankie sings and plays ukulele with songs in her repertoire ranging from 30’s jazz standards, show tunes, the Beatles classics and traditional folk tunes. She tries to have something that appeals to everyone.

View videos made by Frankie for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our YouTube channel.

Pearl Love is a singer-songwriter from Bristol. Pearl’s songs offer listeners an insight into how she views the world around her and invites them to become immersed in the musical world she creates. Drawing from her personal experience and emotions Pearl’s lyrics are poetic and evocative, embracing the beauty found in vulnerability. Although her songs are deeply personal the underlying themes are universally relatable and it is through these human emotions that Pearl finds connections with those to whom she performs.

Hear some of Pearl Love’s songs on her YouTube channel

View original songs and recordings made by Pearl for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our YouTube channel.

Dan started violin at six and singing at eight, but having been teased at school for having singing lessons, he switched to piano instead. His interests musically range from J.S.Bach keyboard works to James Brown and everything in between. For the hospital, I play a mixture of jazz, gypsy jazz and vocal jazz, with some ballads, and also requests (if I know them!). Dan works seamlessly to provide an hour of entertainment in an easy going fashion.

View original songs and recordings made by Dan for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our YouTube channel.

Chris sings songs and accompanies himself on the guitar and ukulele. He is well-known for his brightly-coloured waistcoats. His repertoire is extensive, covering songs from the 1940s through to the 1960s, from the Andrews Sisters and Fred Astaire through to Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Join in and singalong!

Hannah is an experienced community dance and movement artist, specialising in work with early years children, families and older people. She has worked extensively in early years, in delivery, training and exchange with over fifty UK settings and practitioners from across Europe and from Egypt, Mexico and India.

Hannah’s work with older adults includes leading Take Art’s Time to Move Dance Project for older people in Somerset (2006-9) and the Direction of the Tacchi Morris Bolder Dance Company, from its inception in 2013, to 2018. Hannah has taught Community Dance at Plymouth and Roehampton Universities and London’s Laban Centre and lectured in Early Childhood at Canterbury Christchurch University from 2013 – 18.

In hospitals, Hannah enjoys engaging responsively with patients, through conversation, song or sensory stimuli. Hannah is a self-taught ukulele player and finds this brings a gentle, accessible sound to people’s bedsides.

In her spare time, Hannah lives in an off-grid cabin, where she and her partner take care of a large ornamental garden. For her own development, Hannah has participated in multiple coastal movement workshops with Helen Poynor in Devon and takes increasing inspiration from the natural environment in her work. Visit Hannah’s website

View videos made by Hannah for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below.

Alex is a guitarist and singer who performs music to patients across Salisbury District Hospital and the community hospitals of Wimborne and Sherborne. Alex plays a mix of jazz and pop music from 30’s-60’s. Outside of his work with the Elevate programme Alex also performs professionally and teaches the guitar and ukulele in the local North Dorset area.

View videos made by Alex for ‘Elevate artists at home’ below and on our YouTube channel.

David is a Written and Spoken Word Arts for Health Facilitator. His background is in community development, education and training and feature making for BBC Radio.

David’s work focuses on participants’ personal interests and life experience using poetry reading and writing and visual art alongside objects, artworks and photographs. He aims to enable participants to gain confidence, skills and social connections and to significantly improve their mental health and independence.

David currently devises and leads residencies and creative sessions with people with a range of acute and long-term health conditions (mainly mental health conditions, spinal injury, brain injury, stroke and memory loss) in community and healthcare settings. This includes hospitals, GP surgeries, museums, art venues, and residential care. He is also commissioned in arts and health research and development, and to enable primary care patients to form self-running creative well-being groups.

Sarah is a pianist who plays a wonderful range of music from Bach and Mozart to Bob Dylan. She can relax you with gentle musical impressions or rouse your spirits with a sing-along number. She also takes requests.