Education ViVA

Fever
10-11th October 2006
Rainbows Children's Hospice, Loughborough
and Leicester Royal Infirmary

"Better pain relief than morphine" - Staff, Leicester Royal Infirmary

This exciting project, Fever, involved creative music-workshop sessions in Rainbows Children's Hospice and a children's ward at Leicester Royal Infirmary. The project offered children and staff the opportunity to have a creative and interactive-musical experience with professional musicians, and the opportunity to hear live music outside the concert hall. This small-scale pilot showed the popularity and success of this new area of sinfonia ViVA's work in the community.

" Gave relief from thoughts of illness. " - Leader

The project was led by Sigrun Saevarsdottir-Griffiths and involved a team of sinfonia ViVA musicians.

" They all took part in the music making (some with assistance) and the children who had aural skills all contributed creatively to the process. " - Leader

The session at Leicester Royal Infirmary was an hour long and involved staff and patients from the hospital and the session at Rainbows Children's Hospice was in two 45 minute halves, with a break for the children to be able to have a look at the instruments and to have a chat with the musicians.

"They were fantastic at getting down to their level and allowing the children to explore the instruments." - Rainbows staff

Whilst both these workshops took the same starting point, they were quite different, as the musicians reacted to the skills and needs of the participating children and shaped the sessions accordingly. Staff from both venues commented that the sessions lifted the spirit of those involved.

" There was a real feel good factor in the session." - Staff, Rainbows Children's Hospice

"[The young people benefited by] being away from their ward, being with other children and doing something stimulating." - Staff, Leicester Royal Infirmary

The workshops were themed around Autumn, which was suggested by the hospital. The workshops included an introduction to the instruments, from ViVA's musicians, with some solos, and some small ensemble pieces, all revolving around the Autumn theme.

The young people and carers also worked alongside the musicians to create an original piece inspired by the theme of Autumn. The group used mainly percussion instruments and voices in their creation of an Autumn themed work. Each workshop then ended with an informal short performance of their works.

"Real sense of achievement once piece had been played through." - Leader

Fever was made possible through the generous support of Charnwood Borough Council, Eastern Orchestral Board and sinfonia ViVA. sinfonia ViVA receives funding from Arts Council England.

Images from the project...