Ali Richards

Qualified nurse, trained gardener, and lover of all things creative – the messier the better! Alison’s 20 year career working as a registered nurse has given her a clear understanding of the pressures that are faced daily within the NHS. She is passionate about the benefits of creative activity and time in nature to support good mental and physical health. She is keen to use her nursing experience and creativity to support others to explore creative practice in order to enhance wellbeing.

Training: BA Adult Nursing with hons; City and Guilds ILM level 3 award in leadership and management; Person centred coaching; Working for Gardeners Association’s ‘Work and retrain as a gardener scheme’ (WRAGS)

Outside of work Alison lives with her family and pets. She loves getting her hands dirty and is never happier than when she is baking, working in her garden or out walking through the countryside. She loves making things and most recently has been designing and screen-printing her own fabrics.

Louise Jordan-Dench

Louise has 15 years experience as a songwriter and performer and has also worked as a secondary school history teacher, youth worker and freelance facilitator working across Wiltshire and the South West. Louise is passionate about inclusive and socially engaged practises and is interested in engaging people of all backgrounds and experiences with the arts and heritage.

Training: Louise is a qualified teacher with an MA in Human Rights. Other: Louise is a Mental Health First Aider with a Level 3 City & Guilds qualification in Autism Awareness

When she is not working Louise enjoys visiting museums and sites of historic interest, walking and reading. She is currently attempting to dust off her GCSE French.

Emmy Broughton

Emmy was captivated by the sound of the harp at a very young age – when at last she was given the opportunity to play, she devoted herself to this magnificent instrument. Now in adulthood, she has found her own style, combining her classical training in French Impressionism, with the exciting rhythms and textures of West African Kora Music. She also offers lively covers of songs requested by patients, as this emotional connection to music is what she is most passionate about.

Emily Burridge

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.

 

Andiamo

Bach’s G major Prelude

Reverie

Aqua Vitae

Salutation out of the blue

Pizzicato Rhapsodie

Jane Saunders

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.

 

Eastern European folk medley

British folk music medley

Latin music medley

Summer music medley

Libertango

Mini concert with Pachelbel’s canon

Mairi Bhan Og & Greensleeves

Gnossienne

Lark in the Clear Air

Liv McLennan

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.

 

Seated dance – Warm up

Seated dance – Charleston & Tango

Seated dance – Tall trees & Padstow

Seated dance – Cool down

 

Frankie Simpkins

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.

 

Chilled songs

Upbeat songs

Songs from musicals

 

Songs on ukulele

Moonglow

Somewhere over the rainbow

 

Pearl Love

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.

Winter Light

Simplicity of childhood

Shoreline

 

Wishing tree

Earth is…

My first day by the sea

 

Dan Baker

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.

 

Timeless classics

Jazz standards

Piano and saxophone

Chris Pearson

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!

Penny Calvert

Penny’s extensive experience in Creative health is applied both at ArtCare, specialising in evaluation and education and also in her regional role working for the National Centre for Creative Health as the South West Creative Health Associate.

Penny’s key skills and passions are championing Creative Health work and its impact on people and communities; team work and developing creative skills in others; engaging people in shaping their environment and healthcare and developing site specific solutions, projects and products to enhance people’s experience of health settings.

Training: Masters in Senior leadership; Arts Therapy Foundation; BA Hons Three-dimensional design; Arts, disability and employment; Prince2 project management and a PGCE in the lifelong learning sector.

When Penny’s not at work she’s using photography, design and DIY to capture her favourite places and things, singing, paddleboarding or walking the dog at the beach whenever she can.

Hannah Lefeuvre

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.

 

Garden Musings 1 – Birdsong

Garden Musings 2 – Daffodils

Garden Musings 3 – Polytunnel

Garden Musings 4 – Top of the hill

Garden Musings 5 – Pesto

Garden Musings 6 – Rain

Garden Musings 7 – Blackbird

Garden Musings 8 – Wind & wildflowers

Garden Musings 9 – Homegrown salad

Garden Musings 10 – Flowers

Garden Musings 11 – Nettles

Garden Musings 12 – Fruit

Garden Musings 13 – Rainbow walk

Singing to you from my garden