Live Music a Boost for Patients and Staff
You would have been forgiven for thinking you had wandered into a live gig in Kelvingrove Park, if you had been walking through the Gartnavel Royal Hospital campus on Thursday 13 August.
Local musician and a regular performer within the Art in the Gart creative volunteer programme, Charlie Gorman performed his show, “Gorman on the Green”, to an outdoor audience of patients and staff from the hospital’s Kelvin ward and Clyde ward.
Charlie played standing behind a theatre-style, blue cord barrier between the decorated tree trunks while the audience enjoyed the physically distanced seating and the strawberries and ice cream on offer. He performed musical requests which ranged from Americana to Jazz and Folk to Pop, on the grassy areas directly in front of the wards.
Charlie had previously offered “Garden Serenades” from the garden spaces of the older people’s wards of the Hospital's Cuthbertson and Timbury wards during the current lockdown and also “Sunday Session Live” in the garden space of the Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit.
Lynn Aris, Occupational Therapy Technician was one of the staff team who made the show possible. She said: “We use all sorts of live music on the wards in Gartnavel Royal Hospital, working with community musicians and professional performers. It is a main part of the day to day activities which we know helps to improve the experience people have when they are in hospital. The performance brings people together to share a favourite song, or memory which comes with the song. We all feel better after a live music session and it’s really important that we have been able to keep music live on the wards during lockdown.”