Musicians keeping employers in tune with mental health and wellbeing needs

Members of a music academy in Hull are banging the gong to raise awareness of a new service aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing in the region’s businesses.

The partners at Eclectic Music are also playing the harp and flute, strumming guitars, and even rolling out the yoga mat as part of a pick and mix package of soothing solutions for stressed out workers.

Danny Thompson, creative director, producer and founder of Eclectic Music, said: “We also offer reiki and frequency therapy as well as breathwork. I kept hearing from business people how stressed their teams are and I wanted to look for a new angle – music makes everybody feel good one way or another.

“From there we have launched a complete wellbeing package – tailored wellbeing solutions for a thriving workforce. So far it has only been promoted through our own business channels, social media and some health and wellbeing events but now we are spreading the word.”

Danny has worked in music and the music business in Hull for more than 20 years and Eclectic Music has been taking shape since 2017, with the current format in place for about four years.

Operating from the Grade I listed Maister House in High Street, Hull, Eclectic Music specialises in tuition for adults. The business also teaches across primary and secondary schools and other activities include working with two large scale adult community ensembles and several chamber ensembles as well as collaborations with other groups in the city.

The corporate package came from looking at the rich variety of skills of the team and identifying what was missing.

Danny said: “We do a lot of one to one music lessons from six years to 96 years and I thought about the things that are going on at the  moment that we can help the community with, the areas of the city we are not in with music. The answer was business to business.”

Having trained as a Reiki practitioner during the pandemic Danny was able to draw in people who were exploring sound, yoga, breathwork and other wellbeing aspects.

He said: “We have some corporate sessions planned out and we can offer modular choice so employers can look at what might work for them.

“We help them discover what their staff want and reconnect the management with the wants and needs of their workforce. If you have happier staff you have lower staff turnover, which is good in all sorts of ways including recruitment, retention, productivity and building that sense of team.”

The company performs, on and off-site, with around 200 musicians coming through the doors regularly and many of them literally taking their performances on the road.

Danny said: “Last year we put an orchestra on a bus and took them round some of the estates in the Hull – just playing in the street, shopping centres, street corners, grass verges. There were about 35 in the orchestra performing things like Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Beethoven. We’ll be doing it again this year.”

Eclectic Orchestra’s next big performance will be Phantom of the Opera at Jubilee Central in Hull on Saturday October 25.

Maister House is leased from the National Trust and, with three floors, enables Danny and his team to offer professional musical instrument repairs, space for other creative independents, and collaboration on national initiatives such as Heritage Open Days.

“We wanted to make sure there is space for high quality independent professionals who work in the creative industries and have nowhere to go,” said Danny.

“Cinematographers, designers, the top floor is given over as a creative think tank. There isn’t another centre for independent practitioners with a wide variety of backgrounds and specialisms to come together and collaborate in this unique way. 

“We have ended up with some really nice collaborative by products. You can walk in here with an idea and walk out with an album, a video, documentary or even a full orchestral production! Everything is in one place.”