Abstract

Souls and Shadows is a charitable foundation inspired and founded by Caspar Olsen through his songwriting work with Bob Heath, a music therapist based at Sir Michael Sobell House Hospice in Oxford.

Caspar died in 2006 and the Foundation began work shortly afterwards. Since its inception the foundation has supported many music therapists who work in palliative care by funding training in creative songwriting, the acquisition of recording equipment and in some cases the direct funding to hospices to pay for therapists services. As a result it has had an extremely positive impact on the creative output of many patients at the end of their lives.

It is now proposed that some of this work created by patients is to be presented as a live musical work entitled Souls and Shadows Live. The first concert will be held at The North Wall Theatre in Oxford on April 19th 2011. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Sobell House Hospice Charity.

The production programme takes each writer's work and express its unique emotional message using both live and pre recorded audio-visual musical performance. Simple choreographed scenes from each song are staged to re-enforce the emotion and narrative of each piece with a recurring musical theme linking the song cycle to each individual patients journey and story.

It is hoped that Souls and Shadows Live will not only promote the use of creative music interventions in palliative and bereavement care but will also create opportunities for networking and skills development in the wider musical arena.

This will be an oral presentation which will include pre-recorded and live music from the planned programme.