A ground breaking collaborative project, supported by Help Musicians, sharing stories of children, family, staff and musicians' experiences of health, music and hospitalisation through music and spoken word. The 1000 Days Project provides spaces for people to consider how stories of health and hospital experience can be told creatively, and reaches out across music, health and education communities.
The Collaborative Creative Team
1000 Days Project Collaboration
Dr Rosalind Hawley
Co-Director Songbirds UK
Described by The Guardian as ‘One of the UK’s leading Klezmer clarinettists, Ros’ career is an individually crafted pathway of music-making and performance in conventional and unconventional contexts. A passionate collaborator and explorer of musical interaction, Ros’s interest in music and health work has taken priority in recent years, resulting in her writing a reflexive study of her artistic practice of hospital musical interaction for her PhD.
Ros’s reflective research has resulted in publications (2013, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022) and appearances at national and international music conferences. Ros is a trainer and consultant for music organisations across the UK , combining training in techniques of musical interaction with skills development in reflective practice.
After a classical music training Ros developed a passion for Klezmer music, and later broadened this interest to develop her work using musical interaction and improvisation with children with complex communication needs, disabilities and life-impacting medical diagnoses.
“The musician who disrupts the hierarchy of the hospital.” (Theresa Allison MD PhD, University of California).
Mark Fisher
Mark Fisher, Co Director of Songbirds Music UK
Guitarist and composer Mark Fisher has overcome significant challenges in his life and used them to build a unique career. Mark experienced a period of progressive ill health in 2009 -2012 suffering chronic renal failure. He fought to maintain his independence and dignity, working right up until becoming very sick.
Faced with long periods of hospitalisation and dialysis treatment, music became vital in helping him to survive this period in his life. Receiving a transplant in 2012, Mark’s musical career has undoubtedly been shaped by this journey. His lived experience informs his work as a musician and composer specialising in enhancing healthcare contexts today. Mark’s ability to read a room and use his music to convey a mood that can be shared by everyone is at the centre of his artistic practice and he is dedicated to supporting young musicians- many of them classically trained- who learn to improvise with him on hospital wards.
During the 2020 pandemic a series of Mark’s compositions for critical care environments were adopted by Carmedic™ and used around the world to support patients suffering from Covid 19 in Critical Care units.
"Mark you are my guitar guru and I would never have strummed a note if it wasn't for you." (Parent of child in palliative care).
Keisha Thompson
Senior Manager of Children, Young People and Learning at Arts Council England
Keisha Thompson is a Manchester based writer, performance artist and producer www.keishathompson.com/
Keisha is Senior Manager of Children, Young People and Learning at Arts Council England, chair of radical arts funding body, Future’s Venture Foundation, a MOBO x London Theatre Consortium Fellow and a member of Greater Manchester Cultural and Heritage Group, and recipient of The Arts Foundation Theatre Makers Award 2021.
In 2020, she finished touring her award-winning solo show, Man on the Moon. Her debut book, Lunar, features her poetry and the show script. Whilst Moonwhile is a poetic mini album featuring music from the show. Her work has been presented at venues high profile venues and platforms such as Tate Modern, Blue Dot Festival and the British Council Showcase in Edinburgh.
“From the mundane to the spectacular, I will use my body, my voice, my vernacular.” – Keisha
Jack D'Arcy
Sound Designer and Theatre Maker
Jack D’Arcy is a sound designer and theatre-maker from Salford, Greater Manchester.
A graduate the London School of Economics, Jack has received training and support from the North Wall Arts Centre and Contact, Manchester.
He is a member of the National Youth Theatre and has worked with the likes of Manchester International Festival and The Pappy Show.
Currently, he is working as Assistant Music Director for a devised show with Contact and HighRise Theatre and is set to release an EP of independent work in the second half of 2021.