Mental health and wellbeing column: my training with Nordoff and Robbins

Throughout my life, I have been drawn to music for one reason or another. My education began with flute lessons at primary school, which soon opened up a whole range of musical possibilities of which I was eager to take advantage. Before long I was playing in local wind bands, orchestras, taking up new instruments, and even composing my own music. I was most intrigued by the latter, and this led me to study composition, first at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and then at the Royal College of Music.

As a composer, I have written almost exclusively for youth groups or for education projects, so my work has often fallen under the umbrella of what one might call ‘community music’. This has generally taken the form of a youth opera, commissioned by an opera house with the intention of bringing together and focusing the energies of young people in the area where it is located. Over seven years' writing such pieces, I developed an appreciation for how music may be used to serve a specific social function – that is, to bring a community together in a single activity. This is partly what inspired me to train as a music therapist with Nordoff and Robbins – a training I have just completed, and which feels like the culmination of my musical experiences to date.