Masterstroke

Last week I found myself observing a circle of fifty or sixty people of various ages who were all recovering from strokes. They were playing instruments under the guidance of a workshop leader plus several members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the music was a semi-improvised lullaby with a hypnotic rhythm, and I admit I fell under its spell. The occasion was a session of the Strokestra, a musical stroke recovery programme originated and run by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. What was I doing there? I had better go back to the beginning.

It was in 1974 when I was doing some teaching for Cambridge University that one of my students, a thoughtful young violinist named Bill Thorp, told me he wanted to write his required third-year dissertation on the subject of music therapy. I was dimly aware of it as a new development in the treatment of certain conditions such as autism, and I had heard of the Nordoff-Robbins Institute that was active in this area, but it was all pretty much off my radar. Bill’s dissertation – it received a well-merited A-grade – opened my eyes. Can music really have healing powers?

Paul McCartney fervently believed it can, and in 1999 I was happy to be one of nine composers invited by him to write a choral piece on that theme. The complete set was called A Garland for Linda in honour of Paul’s late wife, and my contribution was Musica dei donum. The experience left an impression on me, but the idea of music as a healing force retreated in my mind into the ‘interesting but not immediately relevant’ category.

As years went by, events pushed it further forward: a growing number of my circle of colleagues, acquaintances and friends had their lives changed by strokes, dementia, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s, and other often age-related conditions. Then there were my friends’ children or grandchildren who had special needs, were autistic or aspergic, had cerebral palsy, or came under the general heading of ‘neurodivergent’.

The idea that such conditions can be alleviated by music is hardly new – think of David soothing the troubled King Saul by playing his harp – but until recently it remained on the fringes of conventional medicine. Things are changing: scientific evidence mounts that music can heal – much less expensively than drugs – and I see it taking its place among recognised, prescribed, medical treatments.

Perhaps the greatest surprise of my musical career has been the number of people who speak or write to me telling me how music – they are often kind enough to specify my music – has helped them through bad times of one sort or another. Bereavement and depression are the commonest, but I also hear from carers who report that only music seems to reach many who are otherwise locked into their own world; every story is different.

Which brings me back to the Strokestra session I eavesdropped last week. It was in Orlando, Florida – the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was starting a US tour there and I was with them to guest-conduct their first concert. The success of their Strokestra programme in the UK has encouraged them to trial it overseas, and they are regularly sending orchestra members to Florida to train local workshop leaders to continue it on their own.

When I think how hard the RPO members work just pursuing their core activity of giving world-class concerts, I am amazed that they find the time, energy, and commitment for a ground-breaking initiative such as the Strokestra where music and medicine meet. It’s not their only outreach programme: their members visit special-needs schools, care homes, rehabilitation centres and prisons to bring the joy and healing of live music to those who otherwise would not experience it. Hats off, I don’t know how they do it all.

For further reading I warmly recommend a recent book, Music as Medicine, by the American scientist and physician Daniel Levitin (Penguin Books 2026).
For more information about the RPO Strokestra programme, see the RPO website.