by Norman Fitzpatrick
The idea for the event began from a meeting between the Rural Arts Director; Angela Hall, the Outreach Project Manger; Gail Falkingham, two of our Art on Your Doorstep participants and two of our Ex-Forces participants, of which Norman was one. In the meeting the participants discussed the positive impact the projects funded through Celebrating Age had had on their lives. This discussion led on to putting forward suggestions for future events that could be programmed as part of the projects, one of which was Norman’s idea of putting on a musical performance.
On the day of the performance, Norman turned up with all his equipment, leaving himself plenty of time to set up his equipment and try out the sound. He was a little nervous before the performance, but he confidently introduced himself and continued on to play some beautiful classical music from his CD player, integrating his impressive knowledge of composers between each piece of music that he played.
We had over 25 people attend the day, all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves very much. Some of the feedback we got included:
“Loved the music and recognised it. Made me happy and cheered me up no end”
“A lovely interlude to my day”
“Very civilised way to spend the afternoon. More please”
Overall it was a lovely event and it was great to see so many people enjoy themselves and bond over their appreciation of classical music.
If you , or anyone you know is Over 75 and/or an Ex-Forces Veteran and may be interested in participating in the Art on Your Doorstep event day or Ex-Forces project, please call Rural Arts on 01845 526536 for more information on how you could get involved.
