Recently, Holistic Harmonies hosted our first work experience student, Rebekah from St Hilda's High School in South Liverpool. It was a great experience to have Rebakah on board for the week. I was eager to show her the variety of the work we deliver, and also that it's very different to having a 9 to 5 job! When I was younger, I wasn't aware of how broadly music and dance could be used as a tool to reach people in a multitude of ways; I had only seen the education and commercial (performative) aspects. Do you remember doing careers questionnaires at school? I'm not sure Community Musician, or Arts For Health Professional was even considered a career when I was younger... I'm so glad that it's now becoming a sector of its own and more younger people are becoming interested.
Here's a little bit from Rebekah...
Hi, I’m Rebekah, I’m 15 years old and have just finished year 10. I love to dance, I do contemporary and ballroom and latin but have done many styles in the past. I also love to bake, in fact I was actually shortlisted for junior bake off 2021.
Music is a huge part of my life: I’m a grade 8 flautist and I also love to sing and play the piano. I also play the drums in a band (although not very well). I have recently got into the Liverpool Philharmonic youth choir and I have an audition early September for the Hallé youth orchestra. As well as this I have been a part of NYO Inspire this past year and intend to carry on with it.
A couple of weeks ago I spent a week doing work experience with holistic harmonies and thoroughly enjoyed it! I took part in the intergenerational music and movement program at the life rooms in Bootle, I went to age concern and participated in singing for wellbeing and singing mamas sessions.
I enjoyed meeting all the different types of people from different backgrounds, such as getting to talk to a lovely older lady about her family or getting to play with little kids at the end of sessions. Everyone was so friendly and very easy to talk to. I loved getting to see the pure joy people had for music!
Starting my work experience I was a bit nervous but soon felt at home as the people in the sessions were lovely and Rachel really helped me get stuck in. I loved how it also wasn’t just about the music but also about really getting to know each other. I was surprised at the difference the music, singing and dancing had on people’s wellbeing: everyone just forgot about their worries and joined in.
In the future I would love to study music, either at a uni or a conservatoire (I haven’t fully decided yet) and I would like to achieve a diploma on flute before then. I would love to go into the field of music but I’m not entirely sure in what area yet, my week of work experience has really made me think about all the opportunities in music that I had never thought about before!