We’re delighted to welcome Martha Nicholls to The Spitz team. Martha is a HCPC-accredited music therapist, saxophonist and pianist. To mark her arrival, she’s written this beautiful reflection on seeing The Spitz through fresh eyes.
An introduction to ‘The Spitz’: through new eyes.
Martha Nicholls
Through a much-trusted recommendation from a friend, I have recently started working with and getting to know the wonderful people behind The Spitz Charitable Trust. Having been told about the aims and scope of their work bringing high-quality live music into care homes and other healthcare settings, I felt pretty sure from the off that this organisation was something I wanted to be involved in. What I couldn’t have guessed at or been prepared for was just how organic, honest and genuinely human the charity would feel.
Meeting founding director Jane and general manger Thom in their favourite alternative-office setting of a quintessentially London Canal-side pub, I was immediately struck by the frankness, openness and evident passion with which they spoke about their work. It became quite quickly clear that The Spitz is a small but well-established and extremely well-loved community, with its foundations built upon the strong and trusting relationships that the management team share with musicians, healthcare staff, residents, families and friends alike. Amongst many anecdotes of the charity’s history that were shared during this first introduction, I was particularly moved by the comment from Jane that all of the Spitz musicians and management team were designated as ‘Key Workers’ during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so essential was their presence felt to be at their home site of Bridgeside Lodge Care Home. During a time of international crisis and mass uncertainty where external visits were not possible, music sessions from The Spitz team were able to provide stability, reassurance, and essential opportunities for connection for some of the most isolated residents and staff.
Home is the only appropriate word to describe The Spitz’s residency at Bridgeside Lodge. Jane and Thom share an office with general manager Audrei, and are, in the nicest possible way, part of the furniture at the care home.
As I was led on an initial tour of the four-storey maze of a building, two things were made instantly apparent. Not only did Jane and Thom evidently know almost all members of staff and residents personally, but the sense I had from walking around the care home was that music itself is embedded into the very fabric of the building. Improvised keyboard and guitar music floated out of several residents’ bedrooms, pianos stood waiting to be played in the lounge spaces and residents’ doors were adorned with photographs of their favourite singers and musicians. Posters and flyers about Spitz events are also dotted around the site, meaning that you are never too far away from a reminder of the musical possibilities and opportunities here. Walking out onto the garden patio area, with the sun shining down across the vast and open view of the canal, it is not hard to imagine the joy that fills the space when Spitz musicians perform here.
I’m sure that this ever-present musicality is in no small part down to The Spitz’s presence in the care home and is a product of the relationships they have built there. Standing at the foot of long-term resident J’s bed and being welcomed in to listen to a song he had written about a Spitz musician who had recently emigrated, the intimacy, respect and shared humanity of the moment was striking. Looking back, I think this is the moment that I realised that The Spitz was somewhere I wanted to stay.
