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Making music for young people with cancer - Youth Music and CLIC Sargent

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CLIC sargent staff with young people

Youth Music is currently supporting a three-year national project for young musicians aged 16-24 who’ve had a cancer diagnosis, run by cancer support charity CLIC Sargent.

The project provides opportunities for young people around the country to write songs, record and perform live throughout the year. It’s also a valuable opportunity to meet peers who’ve been through a similar experience – and to bond over a shared love of music.

One of the annual highlights is the summer residential workshop, which brings young people together for a jam-packed week of music-making. This year it took place in Wiltshire.

Listen to ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ by a group of young musicians from this summer’s workshop:

It’s really nice to have people from different parts of the country getting together – we don’t know each other, but we can really work well as a team.

Elena

How young people shape the workshop

Harry is a 25-year-old drummer who took part in last year’s summer residential. This year, the programme has supported him in stepping up to become one of the music mentors who help run the workshop.

“I absolutely loved it last year,” says Harry. “I didn’t really know what to expect apart from just music all the time, and that’s exactly what we got.”

Before the workshop, each young person completes a survey about their musical interests and what they hope to achieve from the week – whether it’s developing their singing, songwriting or instrumental skills, working on production and remixing, or learning more about the business side of the music industry.

"The mentors really try and accommodate everyone’s needs. We have a meeting each morning where we discuss ‘who do we need to look out for?’, ‘who wants to do what?’, and we try and coax them into it." 

Twenty young people take part in each workshop, supported by around 10 mentors and music leaders with a wide range of professional music experience.

This gives each participant the chance to have one-to-one tuition tailored to their interests – and also to try out new musical skills they might not previously have thought about.

The week also includes songwriting, open mic and studio recording sessions, and rehearsals leading up to an end-of-week concert where the young musicians perform original compositions in groups. This year also saw the whole group come together for a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster and Sia’s Never Give Up.

Professional singer-songwriter and former X Factor contestant Lucy Spraggan made a special guest appearance. She gave an acoustic performance and fielded questions about her songwriting methods and her experiences in the industry. Poldark actor Tom York also joined the residential for a day, learning new musical skills alongside the young people and running a session on audition technique and handling performance anxiety.

It’s a full-on week, and the music leaders are always mindful of the young people’s energy levels given that lots of them are still recovering from the illness or treatment they’ve been through. CLIC Sargent social workers are also on hand for support throughout the residential.

We give the young people everything we’ve got, and generally they engage in all of it. They look at it as ‘we’ve got just one week here, let’s do all of it’.

KEITH, MUSIC LEADER

Video highlights

See what the young musicians had to say

Reducing isolation

There’ll be a further residential workshop next summer, with a total of around 60 young people taking part over the three years of the project.

Of course, CLIC Sargent’s music programme isn’t just about the one week. Not all of the young people involved in the programme are able to attend the residential. They may not be well enough, their treatment schedule might not allow it, or they might not feel confident about spending a week away with people they’ve never met before.

Being diagnosed with cancer and having to spend lots of time in hospital having treatment can be a very isolating experience, especially for a young person. Addressing this issue is a key aim of the CLIC Sargent music programme.

One of the most exciting ways it’s achieved this is with a ‘virtual choir’ project, which brought together young musicians affected by cancer to sing Sia’s The Greatest.

Each performance was recorded separately. Some of the singers used professional facilities set up through CLIC Sargent’s network of production and engineering contacts, including the prestigious Real World Studios in Bath. Others simply recorded their part on their phone from their hospital bed.

All of the sound clips and footage were then brought together into one powerful video. “The young people could choose which lines they wanted to perform depending on how confident they were at singing,” says videographer Simon, who worked on the project.

Each singer had only seen their small part in the video, so when they saw the final thing they were blown away.

Virtual choir

The video was shared online and retweeted by Sia to her 3.3 million followers!

Youth Music’s investment has helped the programme provide more opportunities for young people in more areas of the country, and to become more sustainable as CLIC Sargent develops its music-leading workforce and network of music industry partners.

Year-round, the programme also includes single-day music-making workshops, recording and gigging opportunities around the country, and social events such as gigs and festival trips.

In the past year, young musicians from the programme have performed at events including Liverpool Food & Drink Festival and Manchester Aviation Festival, and even undertaken a nationwide tour of fundraising concerts including a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall (another tour is planned for this December).

The programme brings together young people who’ve been through some very tough challenges, and offers a safe and supportive environment to socialise. But perhaps most importantly, it allows the young people – if they want to – to forget about their cancer experience, and simply focus on the music.

Photo of Tomas

Tomas story

Tomas, a 21-year-old drummer from Cambridge, was diagnosed with cancer in his first year at university.

“Coming here, meeting other people, and they’re all in the same boat as you – there’s no pressure to put on a face, you can be yourself and no one judges you, and vice versa.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading charity for young cancer patients and their families. They provide specialist support, help and guidance to limit the damage cancer causes beyond their health.

Youth Music would like to thank CLIC Sargent for their help with this case study. A special thank you also goes to the National Lottery for the public funding we receive each year through Arts Council England, without which none of this amazing work would be possible.