Health and Wellbeing in University Music

Being part of University Music is the first step in improving your health and wellbeing - the benefits of making music for pleasure are well known - but by signing up you are not only given access to numerous workshops, masterclasses and resources listed below, it connects you to a network of like-minded musicians who are likely to become your biggest support network during your time at University.

You can also be part of the University Music committee, in one of two positions that help us shape our health and wellbeing programme as well as identify areas where support can be offered. The Health and Wellbeing Officer, and Diversity and Equality Officer provide an opportunity for students who are seeking support, wish to raise issues, concerns, or support University Music’s desire to be as accessible and diverse as possible.

What we offer

All of our health and wellbeing events are open to all our performers – both departmental and University Music. Whether you are a singer, composer or instrumentalist; a music student, non-music student, or member of the local community; as long as you are in a University Music ensemble you are welcome at all of our wellbeing events.

• Performance workshops
  We run the following FREE sessions throughout the year aimed at improving your Health and Wellbeing. Details on when sessions are happening, and how to sign up will be circulated through the University Music mailing list.
• Performance coaching
  If you are a recitalist, choir member, orchestral musician, or any kind of performer who gets anxious about public performance, these sessions are for you. Max Garrard will be giving in-person 1-1 sessions and will present a talk as part of our lecture series.
• Alexander technique
  Specialist Diane Ludwig comes in throughout the year to lead group sign-up sessions. If you’ve never experienced it before – we can’t recommend Alexander Technique enough for your general wellbeing and approach to performance.
• Diction workshops
  Vocal coach Alison Chamberlain will deliver a series of workshops for vocalists, exploring and developing the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet in vocal performance across a variety of European languages (German-French-Italian-English).
• Lecture series
  Each academic year we run a Health and Wellbeing lecture series with talks from a variety of industry professionals, including medical practitioners from the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM), performance coaches, vocal health specialists, and mindfulness experts. This series is designed to run alongside the Music degree programme, but is open to all University Music members.
• Student support
  If you have a Reasonable Adjustments Plan (RAP) in place with your department that you think could impact your involvement in an ensemble, you can talk to Gavin Allsop about this in confidence. This might include getting music in larger print, on different coloured paper, or having an agreement in place about absences from rehearsals.

For further information please contact the University Music and Concerts Team.