WomenCentre and Sound Women

As a music therapist, it’s possible to work in many different settings, using music to support people through whatever challenges they face. Music is a powerful and flexible tool that can energise, soothe and connect people, a universal language that has evolved in every civilisation we know of. I feel immensely fortunate to work as a music therapist at WomenCentre in Huddersfield.

WomenCentre is a charity (Kirklees and Calderdale) working with a holistic, women centred approach to improve the lives of women. Over the 8 years I have been at WomenCentre, I have seen the impact of music making on women’s lives and watched a musical community grow within the centre. Again and again I’m amazed by the songs women write and by the strong, supportive musical community that has emerged. Working in individual sessions and in groups, women who are often new to music making, have found their voices and creativity, and found new ways to connect with themselves and others.

Six years ago, we held our first Sound Women event to mark International Women’s Day. We wanted to celebrate the amazing music that was happening at WomenCentre and to invite other musicians in to perform alongside us: I had a vision of creating a truly entertaining evening that could hold the honesty and the courage of the songs being written and remain a therapeutic experience for the women I work with. We held it at Small Seeds, a venue that supported the warm atmosphere we needed to create.

It was a hugely entertaining and heart warming evening and since then has become an important annual event for WomenCentre – a communal focus, a motivator for writing and rehearsing, a chance to be heard in the wider community, to hear some great women performing and also a night out!

For the second year running, we have the outstanding spoken word artist, Lisa Luxx hosting the event, which will feature ‘Kora Queen’ Holly Marland, cellist and composer Eleonora Rosca, singer songwriter Holly Macve, Monika Zlamalova, Christine Avis and a host of others, including voices from Kurdistan, Pakistan and Ethiopia.