News and Press

Music can affect us in powerful ways, eliciting emotions and transcending language with rhythms, harmonies and pauses.

In recognition of the unique way that music speaks to us individually, we asked the members of Wendover Arts Club to respond to the repertoire in our upcoming concert in Aylesbury with an exhibition of their work. 

"What if you were ill and instead of — or along with — a prescription for a pharmaceutical drug, your doctor wrote a prescription for a music, dance or painting class?"  Is the question posed in Tara Bahrampour's article in The Washington Post on 22 January.  She goes on to mention the RPO's work in relation to our pioneering STROKESTRA programme. 

Doctors in Britain may soon start prescribing such activities for a range of illnesses, according to a plan recently announced by British Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

In a speech in November at the King’s Fund think tank, Hancock decried overmedication and said he plans to create a national academy “to be the champion of and build the research base for and set out the benefits of social prescribing across the board, from the arts to physical exercise to nutritional advice and community classes.”

Describing a project in which the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra worked with people after they’d had a stroke, Hancock said that “through learning to play instruments, trying conducting and eventually performing as a part of an orchestra, nearly 90% of stroke patients felt better physically with fewer dizzy spells, epileptic seizures, less anxiety, improved sleep, improved concentration and memory.”

Read the full article here.  

Find out more about STROKESTRA 

It’s been a busy week in Resound, with three largescale projects running in three residency areas. A project with Northamptonshire Music & Performing Arts Trust has sent a team of musicians to special schools to support pupils devising Mozart-inspired music in preparation for the RPO’s all-Mozart programme at the Royal & Derngate on 17^th February. A second Resound team have been supporting 95 young people with additional needs from three Berkshire special schools to explore Aaron Copland’s Hoe Down, in preparation for a side-by-side performance with Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra and RPO members at Royal Albert Hall in March. Perhaps most excitingly, though, this week was the official launch of the three-year STROKESTRA programme in Hull, a project that has played an important part in the development of Resound’s health & wellbeing strand and one that is very close to the Orchestra’s hearts.