Simon Baynes MP gave a keynote speech about Concertina at the online summit on 23rd June 2021 organised by Spirit of 2012 to mark the achievements of their Carers’ Music Fund project.

As Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, Simon Baynes has highlighted the impact that COVID-19 has had on people suffering with Dementia and their family and friends.

On Thursday 12th November 2020, he participated in a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons on ‘The effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on people affected by Dementia’ where he spoke about how important the issue is to both himself and constituents, many of whom have been in contact to express the impact that COVID-19 is having on their lives and relatives suffering with Dementia.

Simon also highlighted the work of Concertina in providing music for the elderly in care homes across England and Wales and stressed the importance of music to the lives of Dementia patients in lifting the spirits and taking patients back to their youth.

Concertina was very honoured to receive donations amounting to £223.59 in memory of Peter Cannon, a dear friend and supporter of Concertina in Powys who sadly died in December 2019 aged 90.

As Mayor of Llanfyllin in Powys, Simon Baynes has taken part in two Civic Services in June 2018 and 2019 at St Myllin’s Church. Half the collection at both services was donated to Concertina, one of the Mayor’s two chosen charities, resulting in a total donation of £128 for the work of Concertina. The photo shows the 2018 service with, from left to right, Cadet Morgan Cape, Simon Baynes, Jennie Castle, Maggie Baynes, Jonathan Bellingham and Cadet Travis Langstone.

Concertina tries where possible to support smaller charities providing music for the elderly, reaching parts of the charity world that larger grant givers can’t. Examples in 2018 included Llys Glanyrafon Care Home in Newtown, Powys; Haven Court (health and social care provider) in South Tyneside; Coundon Care Centre Charity in Coventry and Spitalfields Music in East London for their project providing music for the elderly in three care homes in Tower Hamlets. Being a charity based in Mid-Wales, our grant giving is nationally spread across England and Wales and not weighted to London and the south-east of England.

A large crowd came and sang their hearts out at Carols in the Square in Llanfyllin, Powys on Christmas Eve. People were very generous in their donations to the collection during the evening which raised £236 of which half was donated by the Mayor, Cllr Simon Baynes, to Concertina.

Concertina is very grateful for the kind donation from Lizzie and Tony Gilks who run and star in Timespan Historical Presentations. They take their presentations to Care Homes for the elderly and many other venues and describe their work in this way: “Our series of lectures have a difference! We transport our listeners back to the depths of time. Reality steps in as we portray period costumed characters, using artefacts to assist in illustrating the deprivations and conditions of the poorer classes as well as the opulence and glamour of the aristocrats.”

Our grant giving in 2017 continues to cover a wide range of communities across England and Wales from Age Concern in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk to Wiltshire Live Music in Bradford-on-Avon, from Hope Heritage Community Trust in Liverpool to New Harmonie in Horsham in West Sussex. We have a good mix of new applicants and those with whom we have built a long-term relationship such as Clonter Farm Opera near Congleton in Cheshire who put on an entertainment each year for the elderly in their wonderful theatre in a barn on their farm.

In the second half of 2016 Concertina made 12 grants to organisations providing music for the elderly from all over England and Wales. These included Rubicon Dance in Cardiff and Newport, which provides music and movement sessions, as well as Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park near Stratford-upon-Avon for music therapy in their Dementia Café. We also supported Newark Live at Home Scheme in Nottinghamshire for musical activities at coffee mornings such as singers, bell ringers and musical quizzes. We are always looking to help smaller charities who find it more difficult to attract grants and were therefore very pleased to make a grant to Dartmouth Caring in Devon for its musical Memory Café.

On Sunday 22nd May, 120 members of the Kidderminster Motor Car Club visited Bodfach Hall in Mid-Wales where Concertina is based. The Club was on a scenic tour of Powys and Shropshire and the members were given morning coffee at Bodfach. They also looked round the gardens and, in return for this hospitality, they generously donated £360 to Concertina.

The Trustees were very impressed by the wide range of grant applications in the autumn last year and in January 2016 we made grants to 12 organisations across the UK which provide music for the elderly in places ranging from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Wiltshire and from Leeds to London. These included Thetford Voices which organises 50 children to sing carols in Residential Homes in Norfolk; L’Chaim: Living Music which is run by the City of London Sinfonia in conjunction with Jewish Care to provide interactive concerts for elderly Jewish refugees and survivors of Nazi persecution; MusicWorks which provides chamber music performed by young musicians in Care Homes, and All Together Opera run by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden which supports a weekly singing group at the Royal Opera House for older people to sing and perform opera. We never cease to be amazed by the imaginative ways in which musicians provide solace and support for the elderly community across the UK.

In June Concertina has made grants to 14 organisations providing music for the elderly in places ranging from Tyne & Wear to London, from Preston to Powys and from Sussex to Cardiff. As usual, there are a wealth of imaginative ways on offer to provide musical entertainment including musical tea parties given by Clonter Opera Theatre in Cheshire; a musical project by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre based around their production of Little Voice; a singing group of elderly people in Preston called the Singing Circle and free transport provided by the Llanfyllin Music Festival in Powys so that elderly people can attend their concerts. All of this does so much to combat loneliness amongst elderly people and brighten up their lives.

After a bumper crop of plums, damsons, crab apples, quince and apples at Bodfach Hall, the Baynes family have been busy making jam, jelly and juice, some of which is being sold to raise funds for Concertina.

Our previous administrator, Sally Dyson, was thrilled to be invited by the Grocers' Charity to the Diamond Jubilee Lunch held at the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday June 5th. It is an enormous honour for Concertina to have been represented at this historic event and proof positive that the work of providing music for the elderly is now well recognised as being invaluable.

The Raffle, held at Bodfach Hall Garden Open over the Diamond Jubilee weekend, raised £130 for The Concertina Charitable Trust. Huge thanks to Dorothea and William Longrigg for manning the raffle and for Simon and Maggie Baynes for donating the proceeds to Concertina.

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£4,700 raised!
On Thursday 17 November 2011 the trustees and committee members organised a delightful soiree at the elegant home of the Scotts in Holland Park. £4,700 was raised and a wonderful evening was had by all!

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The final fund may hit £10,000

This exciting event was held on 1 April at Manchester Square Partners' Offices. Read all about the event, find out about the wonderful prizes drawn by Rosalind Plowright OBE,and learn how you can still help us reach our final fundraising target.

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Concerts for Older People in Wales

“One of our patients has recently been bereaved and critically ill herself and at times lost the will to live. At the end of the concert she whispered to me “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” There was singing and feet tapping even in quite depressed clients."

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