Musicians sought to help grow hospital project

Musicians have been performing in Princess Elizabeth Hospital's children's ward since January

Specialist training for musicians who want to perform in hospital has been launched to "widen access" to a scheme which aims to make the environment more uplifting.

The School of Popular Music (SoPM) has been doing performances and music-making sessions since January at Princess Elizabeth Hospital as part of its Healthcare Musician Programme with Guernsey's government and OPUS Music UK.

As part of this, training sessions for any musician wanting to perform at the hospital in St Martin have been set up.

The government said the scheme would involve OPUS members training SoPM musicians, who would then go on to provide training for other performers.

Any musician can take part in the scheme with year-round courses being rolled out by the school.

Lottie Barnes, the government's head of creative health, said the "train the trainer" approach could help grow the scheme and "enhance the role of music in supporting islanders' health".

Tyler Edmonds, director of SoPM, said the school had been taken aback by how impactful the music sessions had been at the hospital.

"We all have experiences with the hospital, it might be grandparents, parents or even ourselves being in hospital," he said.

"It could be a quite isolating lonely place to be and to make such a big difference to people with music, it's incredibly powerful."

OPUS chief executive Nick Cutts, who will be providing some of the training, said he was delighted to be building on the project.

"The thing that the patients get from it is that sense of autonomy and control, they can be a big part of that music-making experience," he said.