CIMTR Public Lecture Series: 'Light up my life' Project Findings

‘Light Up My Life’ is a project led by Casio, in partnership with the national campaign Music for Dementia, founded and funded by The Utley Foundation, and Methodist Care Homes Association. The project's aim is to increase awareness, access and participation of music making activities within care home settings, highlighting the incredible power music has to bring us together and improve overall health and wellbeing. Utilising Casio’s unique portable key lighting keyboards over a period of four months, registered music therapists and care home staff set out to bring music activity participation to the forefront of dementia care. Neil, Grace and Chris will talk through this remarkable project, its background and highlight some of the incredible results further reinforcing the power of music in dementia care!

Speaker Biographies:

Neil Evans: Neil Evans is the head of Casio UK’s Electronic Musical Instrument Division with over 22 years of music industry experience, as well as being a musician himself of over 40 years. Since completing a bachelor’s degree in music performance and composition, his many roles to date have allowed him to apply his musical expertise and knowledge to help shape a number of campaigns to support the wider benefits of music making. It was a personal interest in dementia and its devastating effects where he collaborated to create the ‘Light up my life’ campaign in partnership with Music for Dementia and MHA care homes . This project focussed on how to utilise Casio’s unique technology with the aim to increase music activity participation in care homes via light up key keyboards, a project which produced astounding results!  

Dr Chris Stanbury: Dr Chris Stanbury has over two decades of experience in music education and has contributed to a number of electronic keyboard and piano books which are used worldwide. As well as being Casio UK’s Musical Instrument Product Specialist, he is much in demand as a professional musician and examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).  Chris’s love of teaching and his passion for advocating the benefits of music making were aptly aligned for Casio’s Light Up My Life project, where his chief role was to deliver training for health practitioners, some of whom had never played the piano before, in how to use the unique Casio keyboards in music therapy sessions.

Grace Meadows: Grace has a life-long career in music, having initially trained as a professional bassoonist at The Guildhall. For the last decade she has worked as a qualified music therapist in a variety of health, social care and educational settings with children and adults across the lifespan, including a large London NHS Trust. Her clinical experience includes autism and communication impairments, child development, mental health and learning disabilities. She is currently Campaign Director for Music for Dementia, a national campaign calling for music to be an integral part of care for everyone living with dementia.