ABOUT US

Death is the one certainty in life touching us all, and as a musician I have always believed in the healing power of music. It is a sad fact that as one grows older, one attends more funerals and I began to notice that live music - other than occasionally that of the organ - only seemed to be present when the musician or musicians were friends or relatives of the deceased or bereaved. Unlike weddings when there are usually months between an engagement and the ceremony, a funeral usually leads on very quickly after a death and many people are in shock or simply too upset to be able to find and organise musicians themselves in the short time available. During a funeral, music allows the emotions to be released and provides a timeless moment for every individual to say their own goodbye; it also lends dignity to the whole occasion and personalises it in a unique way. I therefore saw the need for a musical organisation that would specialise in serving people when they are going through this difficult ordeal. I looked everywhere, trawling the internet to find anyone who was providing this service but only found faceless agencies offering generalised groups and musicians for weddings and “corporate events”. Some of these included funerals in their listing of functions, but they all seemed somewhat anonymous and none of them offered a personal and flexible service. Passionately believing that people could be helped by musicians in this way, I decided to set up an organisation myself. A name was found for the company from Christina Rossetti’s poem “Song”, which begins:

I then spent many months setting up the company, talking to musician friends and colleagues, and spending many wonderful hours researching and listening to appropriate music – music that I felt would comfort, console and uplift. I set out the aims as follows:

1. to allow people direct access to a broad range of live music, when they are dying or bereaved using the best musicians available at short notice;
2. if required, to spend time with the person concerned, giving musical advice and suggesting music that would be most personal for them;
3. to take care of all the practical details involved with the “performance” e.g. providing the sheet music and liaising with funeral director, minister and organist so that everything runs smoothly;
4. to allow a person to discuss and book the music in advance for their own funeral in the form of a living will – their choice kept on file for the future;

As far as I have been able to research at the time of writing, there is no other organisation in this country that can compete with this level of service: the high quality of musicianship combined with the caring and meticulous attention to detail – in short, we are passionate about what we do.

The benefits of live music over that recorded in the sterile confines of a studio cannot be exaggerated. CD’s, of course, help tremendously; but when there is a live performance, the ordinary can be elevated into the extraordinary. A live performance by its very nature is a unique event and therefore something infinitely human, precious and vital, in a world which is becoming more and more fast moving, mechanical and consumer-orientated. Arranging a private performance of a beautiful piece of music is perhaps the most special thing one can ever do for someone. Also, the cost of booking professional musicians is not so prohibitive when set against the expense of the whole funeral. As a funeral expense, it may even be offset against tax on the estate of the deceased. Although I am naturally somewhat biased, I would far rather have a sublime or perhaps hilarious piece of music performed at my funeral by hand-picked musicians, than any quantity of flowers. The music remains in the minds of friends and family forever – the flowers simply wither and get binned. Also, quite simply, with good music, people leave the funeral feeling better than when they had arrived.