Hospital musicians

Hospital musicians

As a performer there can be few more satisfying things than changing lives with your playing. But, unless you're Yehudi Menuhin, you might have little chance of laying down a philanthropic legacy.

There is something you can do, however. Janet Beale is a pianist and accordionist from Southampton. She studied performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London and, while she was there, got involved with a Communication Through Music course. 'I had been accompanying a singer and our tutor suggested that we do some concerts in hospitals,' she says. So she began doing sessions for Music in Hospitals as a student - and has been working for them ever since.

Music in Hospitals was established in 1948 to improve the quality of life of adults and children with illness and disability through live music. The charity has offices in Surrey, Wales, Scotland and the North West and organises concerts in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. It now presents more than 4,000 concerts each year in care homes, hospitals, day care centres and special needs schools.

'I do get regular work... but it usually consists of ad hoc gigs and tours here and there'

'Working in hospitals is not a career,' says Beale, who also works as a freelance musician, playing in bands and for music clubs. 'I do get regular work from Music in Hospitals but it usually consists of ad hoc gigs and tours here and there. And the work all depends on the funding as well.' For example, during the norovirus crisis in January, Beale found herself with very little hospital work, for obvious reasons.

The pay isn't wonderful either. Beale earns around £48 per concert plus expenses and usually does around two concerts per day. But, she says, the social benefits outweigh the financial: 'The hospital concerts really bring the person out of the patient. It's amazing to watch them come alive when we play. Some of the people we play to are in a vegetative state and it brings them back to being a person again. Maybe sometimes they can't speak but they can sing.' Performing in a hospital environment can be radically different from your usual concert. 'You certainly aren't doing it for your own ego,' Beale laughs.

The concerts are usually in a day room, Beale explains, 'but because I play an instrument like the accordion, I can go to the bedside. Sometimes the patients are so ill that this is the only option.' Being a hospital musician isn't for the faint hearted. 'You do have to be sensitive to do it,' Beale adds. 'Because of the nature of the illness, for example, stroke patients' emotions are so near the surface that they can't help but cry and it's very hard not to cry back!'

• Print
• Email to friend
• Discuss