Wellbeing

Many years of research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health on Big Noise Govenhill provide the deepest evidence of our field’s social and economic impact.

Participating in the arts adds years to your life—you may have heard that before, but now scientific data proves it.

The story of Sinfónica Azteca begins about five years ago, when the world was just beginning to reemerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the globe, music programs and youth orchestras were struggling to survive. The need to restore trust in live music and reignite enthusiasm among young musicians had never been greater.

In Mexico, this posed a double challenge, since we had always lacked a national youth orchestra capable of uniting the country’s young musicians in high-caliber, immersive artistic experiences.

Music’s wide-ranging health benefits received a new wave of recognition through the recent publication of two studies, each showing long-lasting benefits from music engagement.

A research partnership between Kenji Health, Queen Mary University, and four arts organizations in London has reimagined how we can evaluate the impacts of arts and health programs in rigorous and engaging ways.

Ten years ago, violinist Sophie Till was in Scotland working with players from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I was there too, attending her sessions and participating in a lesson. When I returned to In Harmony Liverpool, I did so feeling that Sophie’s work would soon change the way we taught our young string players.