Longlands was the second extended care home residency in myself and Nic’s Live Music Now career. At ten concerts, it was longer than our previous one in Surbiton and there were moments during the early weeks where Nic and I wondered whether we could maintain effectiveness as performers there over such an extended period. Our feeling now that it is finished is emphatically that far from our effectiveness diminishing, it was continuing to increase week on week and we don’t feel at all that it had simply ‘run its course’. As with Surbiton, we felt a real emotion upon leaving Longlands for the last time, as did some residents and activity co-ordinator Angie. We’ve felt its absence since it finished and feel that had we continued to visit every week it would have continued to have a hugely positive impact and perhaps thrown up more surprises!
The early sessions, while full of rewards, were also challenging at times. After our Surbiton residency we had an idea of the way that we would approach this one. Previously an emphasis on jazz repertoire had worked very well, with an attentiveness and openness to requests of pieces from residents, so prior to our arrival at Longlands we had this Continue reading “Longlands”