On Tuesday 26 March, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra led a free music and wellbeing session at the AECC UC Health and Support Pop Up Event at the Boscombe Arts Depot, 616-622 Christchurch Road.  This is one of the many free health and wellbeing sessions that took place at the AECC UC Pop Up Event, which ran from 18-28 March, alongside free NHS health checks, a community support hub, blood pressure checks, foot checks and diagnostic ultrasound checks.

The session was led by BSO Associate and freelance musician, Sam Mason, who was joined by BSO Young Associate, Ed Lee, and included creative music-making and singing using a range of percussion and drums brought along by the BSO. At the end of the session, one of the attendees led an impromptu chorus of ABBA’s ‘thank you for the music’ to thank Sam and Ed for the session.  Another attendee, who enjoyed the session said “music is my life. I find other areas of life difficult, but music makes me really happy. I listen to music all day long.”

Sue Sharpe, BSO Participate Senior Programme Manager (Health & Wellbeing) said “We were delighted to build on connections in the Boscombe area and to make music and sing with the people who came along to the AECC University College event.  Creative groups can help build supportive relationships within communities and participation can benefit mental health, wellbeing and self-esteem, both for service users and professionals.”

Daniel Heritage, Chiropractic Clinic Lead at AECC University College, commented: “We were thrilled to welcome the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra team to our local community two-week initiative. This session fitted perfectly with our event’s ethos of giving the community access to free health and support advice all under one roof. Wellbeing is a big part of that, and we are delighted that the BSO was able to support this event with their free music and wellbeing session.”

“The event has been a great success.  The goal behind the event was to bring free health checks, sessions and support to the community in an easily accessible venue in the centre of Boscombe.  We certainly achieved that.  We have welcomed 100s of members of the local community to the event, who accessed free ultrasound checks, NHS checks, foot checks, spoke with the support organisations at their stands and joined in with sessions across the two weeks.  I would like to extend a big thank you to everyone involved in the event as well as everyone who came along.”

To find out more about the work of BSO Participate and upcoming events click here