In 2012 my father-in-law was diagnosed with Lewy body Dementia. I overhead
one of his Speech Therapy sessions, and as a classical singer the exercises
were almost identical. I began investigating the link between singing and
Parkinson's and realised there was some work in this area. With the support of
a Finzi Trust Scholarship, I spent some time in the USA working with an
established group in the field called Tremble Clefs (www.trembleclefs.com) and
then when I returned I started to develop a training programme for more singing
leaders with the support of a residency at Britten Pears Arts (formerly Snape) I
also began working with Professor Grenville Hancox. He was in the process of
establishing an international organisation, Sing to Beat
Parkinson's(www.singtobeat.co,uk), to set up more groups. He asked me to
become Director of Training and for the last five years we have been running
training at Britten Pears Arts, Morley College and Trinity Laban. We have
worked with over 300 practitioners and are continuing online this autumn. I also
run two Sing to
Beat Parkinson's Singing Groups in London, one in Pimlico and another at
King's College Hospital. I have also co-designed an opera for and PWP
HerStory supported by ACE as part of Carve CoLab.
I have been asked to speak about this work at the BVA, AOTOS and ICCM (St
John's York) as well as at Speech Therapist Conferences. I have also coauthored
a book Singing for People with
Parkinson's: Designing and delivering singing sessions for people with
Parkinson's and other degenerative neurological disorders.
