ABSTRACT
In this paper I outline the case for the power of music as a restorative activity, and focus on the potential for music technologies to enrich opportunities for wellbeing and creativity in later-life contexts. There is a small but growing body of research suggesting that older people, even those with complex needs, are capable of, and interested in using music technologies. Using some examples of practice, I will highlight the multiple and significant benefits that may be derived from receptive or active creative music-making supported by a range of music technologies, and will consider the underpinning principles that could frame the design and use of later-life creative music technologies. Speaking from the perspective of a ‘digital immigrant’ for whom digital music technologies represent a landscape that can feel unfamiliar and even bewildering, I nonetheless argue in favour of the crucial importance of exploiting opportunities to use creative digital technologies to support continued playful, exploratory, and joyful musical experience.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Andrea Creech is Professor of Didactique Instrumentale at the Faculty of Music, Université Laval, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in music in community (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) and is Director of the Mobile Laboratory for Research in Music in Community (funded by the Canadian Fund for Innovation). Following an international orchestral and teaching career Andrea was awarded a PhD in Psychology in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. Andrea has presented at international conferences and published widely on topics concerned with musical development and lifelong learning and participation in the arts, including the Music for Life Project, funded by the UK Research Councils and winner of the Royal Society for Public Health’s award for research in Arts and Health, 2014. Her current research focuses on music and ageing, community music as a context for integration of refugee communities, music learning and participation in plural communities, and developing emotional competencies through music-making. She is Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and Graduate Member of the British Psychological Association. Andrea is Editor of Psychology of Music, co-author of Active Ageing with Music, and co-editor of Music Education in the 21st Century in the UK.