First Person: Bob Riley on Manchester Camerata's championship of a Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia

In May, it was announced that Greater Manchester was to become the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, hosted by Manchester Camerata.

The Centre is an incredible opportunity and the result of the vision and energy of many people, a place – Greater Manchester – which supports ambition and the belief that great art and social impact go hand in hand and that we should scale up, and an example of the power of music and our amazing musicians. Along the way two people in particular fired me up – Elsie, a figure from my childhood, and Graham Vick. Both sadly gone, but who’d both smile wryly if they knew I was mentioning them. More of that later.

The Centre is about creating the space and time for the direct human interactions made more powerful using music, which unlock people living with dementia. The music therapy-based methodology (we call it Music in Mind) has been developed over many years in partnership with researchers at The University of Manchester. It’s used in what we call ‘Music Café’ settings in the community, where improvised music making enables what can only be described as a conversation without words. A deep and lasting sense of connection and joy is created. It’s open, equal and builds trust. (Pictured below by Jay Cipriani: Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Bob Riley)We’ve begun training carers and family members nationally and internationally, and now the Centre in Greater Manchester will scale that up and measure the impact directly with NHS data records. It’s built on partnerships and embedded in our community, and the Social Prescribing networks in those places help us identify those who might benefit most.

The originality and creativity of the Camerata musicians have enabled the development of so much. Fearless, and fantastic, their human and musical characteristics are extraordinary. The heart and intent with which they do everything is inspiring and the artistic benefits of being part of the Music in Mind programme are also clear. Here’s what one of our players said: “From being someone who only plays the dots on the page, the improvisation and feeling of freedom, and that a wrong note can positively lead somewhere new, has given me something new and amazing in my playing.”

I feel that Fiona Maddocks nailed it recently when she remarked on the “incisive empathy” of the entire orchestra in Beethoven 8. Perhaps this was another version of that feeling of freedom.

Here is an example of the kind of outcomes the Centre will have. Helen was bed-bound for three weeks, non-verbal, hadn’t eaten and was asleep at the start of a session. After 10 minutes she was smiling and interacting and in five more minutes was out of her chair dancing a tango with a massive smile on her face. We watched, and wept with joy. The Centre works with researchers at the University and in the NHS, tracking NHS usage and health and wellbeing benefits. Most importantly, the Centre will bring joy to people on a daily basis. Helen would likely be a great case study for both. (Event at the Centre pictured below by Duncan Elliott). Back in the mid 2010s, Camerata had begun to question our sector, its direction, the venues we played in and how we would develop artists and audiences. The Music in Mind programme was in its early days. We recast ourselves with a new vision and role to redefine what an orchestra can do. It was a bumpy few years; a lot changed. But with these changes came some amazing performances: the fizz, crackle and pop of the Mozart, made in Manchester concert and recording series, opening Glastonbury in 2017 with Haçienda Classical – and so much more.

Gábor Takács-Nagy, our wonderful Music Director, has always referred to music as spiritual medicine and with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, he doubled down on this, as we all did. If we really believed that, how could we turbo charge our purpose to make music for change? Why did we exist? If we didn’t exist for much longer (and for all of us there were those dark days), what would we want to have done?

There were many answers to these questions, but making Music in Mind more accessible became the focus of conversations with our long-term partner, The University of Manchester. And in November 2020, we moved into The Monastery, Gorton, Manchester. We’d always wondered if we could call it home – and now we do.

The Monastery and Gorton have a remarkable story. Built in 1866-1872, for 100 years it would host over 7000 people in services every week. The downturn in industry impacted the area, and The Monastery closed in 1989 to be sold to a property developer who went bankrupt. It then to lay empty, looted and vandalised until Elaine and Paul Griffiths (an ex-choir boy from the 60s) saved the now de-consecrated Monastery from demolition, and with the community, raised millions to repair and rebuild it.

Like many of Europe’s finest Cathedrals, this important heritage site was built by E. W. Pugin on sacred geometry principles. Its epic acoustic is fantastic for many things, but the extraordinary thing is how this combines with the atmosphere in the building. It’s just so unusual and makes a huge difference for the work of the Centre, and our shared vision for health and wellbeing with The Monastery team.

Conscious that we are newcomers, we listen and respond to the community to help guide what we do in the building and think of ways that this can also inspire activity in other places in Greater Manchester. The Centre’s work and our concert series still have work to do in this respect, but we’re on the way. (Pictured below by Jay Cipriani: Andy Burnham at a Music in Mind event).Back to Elsie and Graham.

Elsie would often walk into our kitchen at breakfast time, bringing mushrooms and milk, and leave without speaking. One day she heard our family argument about the proposed cuts to the Royal Opera House in the late 1980’s. She spoke – a shock in itself – and said “good, what have they done for me?”. A family which was never lost for words, suddenly had nothing to say. In that moment it gave me a sense of urgency which has never really left.

I was exceptionally fortunate to work with Graham Vick at Birmingham Opera Company. Over many years there, I found the same urgency from Graham and the whole company. His words in the RPS speech of 2016 say it all, and are even more relevant now: “Maybe that way artists will help bind together our fractured society. Maybe that way we will open up a world of common feeling, and dare to confront false gods in pursuit of our common humanity. Well maybe. But only if we get up off our arses, get out of our ghetto where we’re protected by our excellence, our artistic integrity, our outreach and education departments, our annual reports and go out to find the new world, embrace the future and help build a world we want to live in – not hide away fiddling while Rome burns.”

The Centre will be a challenge; no hiding away for Manchester Camerata! Are you getting off your arse and out of your ghetto?

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