Craig Robertson, one the directors for the Music for Healthy Lives Research and Practice Network, was invited to participate on a panel at a forum for Music and Mental Health, hosted by the School of Music at the University of Manchester. The event featured presentations and music by composer, visual artist and filmmaker Jim Aitchison (Falmouth University), whose video composition Contrapunctus focuses on mental-health issues, and composer Maria Palapanidou. In both cases, the artists explored how their creativity was in part inspired by mental health issues. Craig acted as a respondent as did drummer and director of the Kaleidoscope Orchestra, Steve Pycroft. The focus was very much on the mental health of the musicians and composers and ways people deal with mental health issues. There were many students in attendance at this online event, and many were concerned about how professional and artistic pressures affected the mental health of practitioners. Craig provided an alternative sociological perspective about the societal systems that have emerged over the centuries to form the professional musician class and the problems that have developed alongside that and noted how music can be and has been used for promoting good mental health when used in other less strenuous contexts such as community music and music therapy. Participants were encouraged to explore the Music for Healthy Lives Research and Practice Network and the work of its members and look out for an upcoming seminar series on Music and Prevention: Self-Care, which will be advertised on the network in due course.
