Category: Events

What an evening! On Tuesday, 09.05.2023, after almost 18 months of preparation and almost a year after the concert in Manchester, the second Playlist for Parkinson’s concert took place with us at the Lucerne School of Music.

Finally! I can’t tell you how relieved not only I am, but also the whole team. It was a great evening, which would not have been possible without the active support of all musicians, technicians, the marketing team, co-organizers, technical assistants and many more. A very special thanks goes to my brave co-organizer, Valérie, who rocked the organization as well as the artistic aspects with her wealth of experience and as musical director. Thank you very much and I think we are really a good team 🙂

On the day of the concert, a television team from Tele1 came to visit the rehearsals in the morning to film an exclusive report about the concert and our project. Dawn as the project leader and Toni as the affected person, who actively participated in the concert with his hand organ, were interviewed.

Here is the link to the wonderful Tele1 report:

https://www.tele1.ch/nachrichten/musik-gegen-parkinson-hslu-praesentiert-studien-resultate-151457509

The evening itself was filled with stimulating conversations, music of various genres, an interactive Shaky Egg perfomance and wonderful food.

The evening was opened by Dawn and afterwards I gave a short presentation about our project, the initial findings that led us to this evening. This was followed by a panel discussion with Valentin, Elena, Antonio and our international guests, Jane, Michelle and Fiona. After the aperitif that followed, the concert started with its colorful mix of musical pieces. Have a look at the program of the evening:

It was an exhilarating evening and I think our international guests were also excited and eager to sing and shake along. It was wonderful to speak with so many interested sufferers who are enthusiastic about our research approach and the power of music. I had the pleasure of interviewing two of them on stage about their experiences with music and Parkinson’s, which was great and provided valuable insight into their lives.

It just goes to show again very clearly how important it is what we are doing and to keep going with it.

Here are a few impressions of the evening:

So thank you for reading and sharing this blog and see you next time!

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 14^th 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!

Hello dear research friends, interested people and those who would like to become one!

On 16 May, we had the pleasure of presenting ourselves and our project at the Coffee Lecture here at the South Pole. And doesn’t that just look wonderful?

It was a great experience because it was the first time that the three of us could present together as a team to all colleagues and interested students and I think we did quite well. There were exciting questions during the presentation and wonderful feedback afterwards. It was a wonderful atmosphere and that was not only due to the excellent coffee (thank you very much at this point, Lara 🙂 ). I hope that we will be able to organise another Coffee Lecture in the coming semester, because we could then present the first results and this would be a nice continuation. If that is the case, I will inform you about it here and if you are not far away, feel free to come and visit us. The Coffee Lectures are open to all interested parties and are always worthwhile! They are very exciting and stimulating, not only our project, even though this is of course one of the most exciting topics, but maybe I am a bit biased 😉 . Here you can find the programme for all Coffee Lectures in the coming semester, feel free to drop by, we are looking forward to it!

Thank you for reading this blog and feel free to leave comments. I can’t wait to tell you about all the other exciting things and experiences.

Best wishes and see you next time!