MUSICAL EMPOWERMENT AS A PRACTICE
The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields believes that creative empowerment improves lives – an ethos that runs through all of the work of the orchestra, from the rehearsal room and concert hall stage to our work with emerging musicians and people experiencing homelessness. Throughout the creative music projects delivered with people living with the effects of homelessness for 25 years, we have been wondering:
“How does participation in our sessions impact people’s wellbeing through musical empowerment?”
In order to improve our understanding of this, we delivered a collaborative research project. Our team of researchers consisted of musicians living with the effects of homelessness, staff from The Connection at St-Martin-in-the-Fields, ASMF musicians, and the research leads Dr Jackie Walduck (also a workshop leader for ASMF) and Head of Social Purpose Callum Given.
The research found consistencies between the experiences of musicians and participants:
Anthony [The Connection, Xylophone] : “We are quite a mixed bag of, you know, some professionals, some of you know: I think one of the guys didn’t even know he was playing till the day! So, all things considered, it was a really high standard”
Catherine Morgan [ASMF Violinist] : “It’s a bit like how we work in the orchestra, because a lot of what you say chimes with us, because [usually] we’re stuck with the music. We’re so focused on what we play. We think about all the tiny details. So to be improvising, we come at it from a different angle as well, so it’s not like you’re working with people who are very comfortable. We’re all slightly feeling – waaay! I think that’s a really nice thing about it. ”
We discovered the ways in which people experience empowerment, expressed as five dimensions:
- Musical practices – a mix of freedom and structure
- Risk/challenge – elements of risk/risk reduction, including levelers
- Relatedness – being a band, attunement and connection
- Motivation – supported by encouragement of others and positive experiences
- Self-agency/agency – being aware that you have the capacity to make a musical impact
We developed a better understanding of the levers of empowerment – the things that we do within our practice that have an effect on people’s experiences:
Collectively, we arrived at a model of musical empowerment, started by Anthony, a participant from The Connection:
And finally, we learned about the outcomes of projects upon participants:
- Musical empowerment is richly experienced through the five ‘dimensions’ outlined above
- Increased self-determination, supporting wellbeing and contrasted with some of the limiting challenges surrounding the homelessness experience.
- Projects include factors that mitigate negative effects of homelessness – including responsibility, routine, relatedness, autonomy of choice, timeframes, experiencing challenges.
- Increased skills – participants accumulate skills as performers and creators of music, interpersonal skills such as listening, problem-solving, and evaluative skills such as providing feedback.
- Increased sense of citizenship – an outcome that increases with accumulated experience.
- Positive behaviours are encoded and enacted through music – such as supporting other people, really listening, taking the lead, creating, persisting.
ASMF will use this research to build an evaluation framework for use across its work with people experiencing homelessness, allowing for continued better understanding of the impacts of the work and how to continue improving. It will also be used to train and support ASMF’s musicians in delivering the highest quality sessions, and help us define the specifics of the practice that has been built over the last 25 years.
The full research report can be read here:
This research increases our understanding of the ways in which our work in creative empowerment changes lives, meaning we can better evidence our impact and improve our delivery to maximise its benefits.
To find out more about the project, contact Callum Given, Head of Social Purpose: callumgiven@asmf.org