participatory music
Bela has been working extensively as a community musician and musician in healthcare since 2013. Central to this work is promoting wellbeing and joy, enabling self- expression, nervous system regulation, and community-building.
Bela designs and delivers liberating workshops for adults of all abilities to play instruments and found sounds together, based on listening – she specialises in enabling people of all abilities to play bowed stringed instruments together, often without the need to read music.
Through Brighton & Hove Music for Connection (BHMC) – the organisation she founded in 2014 – she created and facilitates weekly later-starter community string band Silver Strings, which has introduced 250+ people so far to playing cellos, violas, and violins together.
BHMC have also been NHS-/local council- funded since 2016 to create dementia- friendly music-making communities in Brighton and Hove. Including their work with displaced people, those with support needs around their mental health, Interactive Listening Walks, and older people and for staff wellbeing, BHMC has worked with 2200+ people, and delivered 1800+ sessions to date (December ’24).
She co-facilitates innovative Interactive Listening Walks with Dr Bethan Prosser, including projects for British Library, and National Trust. Through this work, she also co-authored research paper Defining in the Doing with Dr Bethan Prosser and Esther Gill (2023).
As part of Hollingdean Wednesdays, Bela also runs a suite of music workshops for local residents, including music and dance, improvisation, and singing.
Group Strings Adventures
These are exciting sessions for complete beginners and experienced players alike. An enticing collection of stringed instruments are placed in the centre of the room. You are invited to pick one up and explore it: how does it feel? How does it sound when you touch the strings? What is it like to experience it as a soundmaking object? What happens when you meet another person making their own discoveries?
These are sessions for mental health and wellbeing, team building and resilience, communication (verbal and beyond verbal) – and fun!
All instruments and resources provided. Contact Bela for more details and booking.
Music in Healthcare
Bela has a complementary professional music in healthcare practice: with Wishing Well Music for Health (WWMFH) Charity, she continues to work in a huge number of clinical settings throughout the south-east, including with premature babies at Trevor Mann Baby Unit, ICU, dementia assessment units, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, acute hospital settings and rehab units.
Through WWMFH, she has also co-designed and delivered training modules for cohorts of medical students at Brighton & Sussex Medical School since 2016, as well as trained and mentored apprentice musicians in healthcare.
Testimonials
“Thank you for a great welcoming space to come and sing, dance and connect – it really helped my mood and mental health to join in” – G
“Your presence, music, enthusiasm, and talent made me so happy – a joyous time” – H
“I was amazed that I was allowed to actually play a real live cello. A beautiful experience” – P
“Fantastic session – lots of listening, lots of subliminal connection. Best improv session I’ve been part of for a long time!” – M
Bela: “In 2011, I was accepted onto the highly-respected Goldsmiths University of London Community Music two-year programme, with Dr Phil Mullen and Graham Dowdall. I learned how to offer music-making inclusively to connect and engage beyond verbal communication, for social justice, wellbeing, and community-building. It completely changed my approach to music-making and awareness of sound and listening, and continues to immeasurably enrich my experience of music and creativity.
Completing the course in 2013, I attended two one-year programmes in 2013-14 that developed my practice even more deeply:
- London School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE)’s Start-Up, enabling me to found Brighton & Hove Music for Connection, who have had significant long-term and ongoing commissions from the NHS, Brighton & Hove City Council, British Library.
- Wishing Well Music for Health Charity (WWMFH)’s apprenticeship programme (with Kate Murdoch); I’ve now freelanced for WWMFH in a wide range of settings, including premature baby wards, ICU, dementia assessment units, for end of life.
I feel privileged to work as a musician in these ways. I’ve introduced over 250 older people to playing strings, contributed to the improvement of innumerable patients’ health outcomes through self-expression, held safe space for people of all ages and abilities to improvise together, and supported thousands of people to (re)discover their creative selves.”
