Sheffield Hospital Residency

Lovely session today at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield where Oli Matthews and myself (Nick Cutts) were playing music on two wards, for and with patients, visitors and staff. OPUS has been visiting the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals now most weeks since the beginning of 2011, but every visit brings new surprises, new opportunities and new challenges. Today’s highlights include staff dancing up and down the corridors and bays, engaging with patients and visitors on a cultural, human level. One of the nurses turned to us and said she was singing along even though she didn’t know the words…… it was an instrumental piece, but the enjoyment and opportunity for cultural engagement it offered enticed her to sing along using her own words. Fabulous. We were directed towards an elderly lady in a single room who had ‘been crying all morning’ who clapped and gave us a toothless grin as we entered the room playing a gentle melody. She insisted (without words) on a more upbeat melody, and we duly obliged. She also sang along with great glee to an Elvis song for which none of us knew ALL the words, but that didn’t matter at all, and gave us a sparkling rendition of ‘Summertime’ for which we provided accompaniment with soprano sax and guitar. Another elderly patient became conductor, waving his arms in the air, and taking great delight when ‘his band’ followed his lead. At the end of the session, staff were heard discussing their musical lives and musical ambitions (some newly formed) with each other and with patients. A real sense of culture brought into the space, and left with all the people with whom we came into contact. For us, an enjoyable, uplifting and stimulating session to remember.