Hello again research friends, enthusiasts, and those who would like to become one!

 

The first concert, Playlist for Parkinson’s LIVE, took place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester on the 14th of June. And you just have to believe me when I tell you that it has been an absolute blast!

Our time in Manchester was an adventure that had started quite early in the morning. Valérie, a master student that is a project assistant also, and I met with Antonio, the vice dean of the HSLU, at the Zurich airport at 6.30 am to get our flight. I guess I don’t have to tell how tired the three of us were, do I? Anyway,  in Manchester and the RNCM we arrived well just to find Dawn and Jane waiting for us with breakfast. Thank you, guys, you are awesome! 😀

Dr Michelle Phillips and Fiona Stuart,  who both work at the RNCM, did an amazing job organizing the concert! Also, of course, we are very grateful to SEMPRE and the Arnold Bentley Award funding this amazing concert. Even the British television was interested in the concert and sent Granada Reports, which is part of itv news, to make a report. You can find it HERE.
Therefore, Dawn, Jane, Michelle, and most others of the organizers spent the day being interviewed. Valérie and I had taken the chance and wandered around the city for it was our first time visiting Manchester.

The concert itself was brilliant! During the concert students were interviewing people with Parkinson’s about their connections with certain musical pieces. One of them, David, who is an composer, even gave a little taste of one of his new songs.
The atmosphere created by all the musicians was incredible and you could really feel everybody’s excitement.

Prior to the concert, Dawn, Michelle, and Dr Ellen Poliakoff, who have been working together for quite some time now, had given a science talk about their projects making concerts like this one possible. Unfortunatly, their colleague Dr Will Young was not able to join the talk.

Nevertheless, having a pre-concert talk about the research “behind the scenes” is a great idea, and I really felt like everybody was interested and enjoyed themselves. I think this was partly because most of the attendees had been participating in the online survey, which was the basis of the programme of the concert, designed to find out about the Parkinson’s use of music in their daily life.

I would like to finish this blog report with Antonio’s words saying that it was fantastic “listening to research results”.

Also, please check out the pictures and video below to get a full impression of the evening!

 

Thank you for reading this blog, and please feel free to leave some comments. I am very interested in your opinion. I can’t wait to keep you posted with all the exciting things going to happen.

Take care and see you for the next read!