‘Soundtrack’ is an intergenerational project about creating a piece of music which commemorates an older person’s life.  

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In a collaboration between Bristol Pre-Conservatoire and St Monica Trust, teenage composers are partnered with elderly residents and are mentored through composing a piece that reflects three months of dialogue and discovery together, using musical memories as the starting point. The older person is able to explore those cherished memories and retell them, whilst the younger connects with the past and is given a new perspective on life in its final chapter, as well as a deeply meaningful creative challenge. At the end of the process, a concert is given where the composers are joined by young musicians as they perform their ‘Soundtrack’ pieces to the partners and a wider community.

 

The project was piloted in 2012, with great success.  It demonstrated the restorative power of revisiting positive memories, how music can release those stories, and how enriching the process is of sharing those experiences with younger minds.  The program is as much about building long-lasting relationship as telling stories beyond words.

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This Bristol Pre-Conservatoire project is generously supported by St Monica Trust and Arts Council England.

"It was just wonderful to be involved in creating something beautiful"

Irene, 85

Soundtrack 2012