Keeping calm with live music

Live harp, acoustic guitar and kora performances are helping to keep everyone relaxed and hopeful at the UCLH-run vaccination site in the Islington Business Design Centre.

While vaccine centres are often described as places of hope with the vaccine the way out of the pandemic, for some people being vaccinated can be a stressful or anxious time.  

UCLH’s art curator, Guy Noble has been working at the BDC for a number of months now and having seen firsthand people’s anxiety, he realised he could something to help. Working with the UCLH Charity and the BDC, Guy set up a programme of live music with different musicians coming every Tuesday and Friday to play. The music is specially chosen to be uplifting.

Guy said: “UCLH Arts and Heritage have been working with Live Music Now! for a number of years to bring live music to patients in hospital and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to extend this initiative into our community. There are a number of research studies that show that live music lower stress levels and this is clear when experiencing the music in the centre as the performances positively change the atmosphere.  The patients, staff and volunteers all really love the initiative.”

You can read more about Live Music Now! here: https://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/live-music-now and watch Rudy Green playing the kora below.