Musician Melanie O’Reilly, two members of her jazz band with poet and spoken word artist Stephen James Smith will collaborate on music workshops with older people. Together they will interweave live swing jazz songs with poetry readings and spoken word performance into the session to develop conversations and encourage more social interaction with the audience.

The workshops will take place in three residential health care centres in county Wexford that are in Castlebridge, Enniscorthy and Gorey.

Previous music workshops were hugely popular and fun involving live performance that developed increased interaction with the audience who participated by singing, song requests and swing dancing on occasion.

The overall feedback from the previous arts taster, music programmes and covid care concerts, showed that older people who participate in these creative activities elevated their moods. This in turn reduced anxiety and agitation, thereby improving their quality of life and overall mental well-being.

Participation in group arts and creativity interventions also helped to support physical, mental, and social abilities. The music and songs also triggered memories and interaction form the residents. By introducing poetry and spoken word with the music this will add another social and fun aspect to the programme helping to develop more social and cognitive skills.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.