Jane Glitre is director of The Spitz Charitable Trust, a London-based charity taking professional musicians into care homes, day centres and hospitals to help overcome loneliness and isolation in residents and patients.

The charity was born out of The Spitz, one of London’s best-loved music venues which Jane ran from 1996-2007 when the venue closed its doors for the final time.

Monday

The week starts with a call to our PR agency. We’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of the charity this year and have enlisted some PR help to amplify our work and impact. Looking back at the journey we have had over the past 10 years fills me with a mixture of nostalgia and pride. We’re currently arranging a visit from the BBC to film a music session at Bridgeside Lodge Care Home (where we do the majority of our work) followed by an interview on BBC Breakfast.

I then make my way to Bridgeside Lodge, which is in Islington. The Spitz has an office space within the home, so while my General Manager Thom Rowlands and I meet with Fatma Makalo (manager of Bridgeside Lodge) for an update on residents’ conditions and to schedule the next couple of weeks of music sessions, we can hear the voice of singer/guitarist Marcus Bonfanti resonating down the corridor. Marcus has been working with us since 2020 so he’s got to know the residents’ music taste really well. Lots of Beatles tunes this morning!

The session is followed by a working lunch at the pub across the road. Thom, Marcus and I are joined by musicians Alice Zawadzki and Ben Hazleton for a sandwich and a brainstorming session. The musicians put forward some great ideas and I leave the meeting feeling really excited about the year ahead.

Tuesday

It’s my birthday today so I’m working from home. The Spitz team arranged for flowers to be delivered, as well as a card signed by musicians and the staff of Bridgeside Lodge! A really lovely surprise.

Part of my job is forging new relationships with venues and institutions where our work can do good. Over the last couple of years The Spitz has brought live music to various hospitals across London. Today, Thom and multi-instrumentalist Izo Fitzroy are at Great Ormond Street for a session. It’s a real privilege to be bringing music to the patients of the most well-known children’s hospital in the world. Song requests range from TikTok and Disney, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa as well as the classics - Wheels On The Bus and Old MacDonald. Versatility is a must for Spitz musicians - nursery rhymes one day and jazz standards the next! Today Izo played for a 5-week old baby and her mother. It’s wonderful to think that we’ve played for people at both extremes of the age spectrum - the oldest resident at Bridgeside Lodge is 96!

While the sessions at Great Ormond Street are fun and joyful, they are also tinged with a sadness that these kids need to be in hospital at all. It’s good to know that our music (among the other wonderful volunteer entertainers) can bring some fun and distraction to the young patients and their families.

Later, I speak with our fundraiser, looking at potential funding streams for the year ahead and then catch up with our chair of Trustees. There are so many different elements to running a charity like The Spitz and we’re a small team so communication is really important, ensuring everyone knows what’s going on.

We have a new musician joining our team this week. When this happens we like to pair them with an old hand. Someone who knows the format of our sessions, knows the staff and the residents and importantly, their way around - it’s easy to get lost at Bridgeside Lodge!

Wednesday

We’re in the process of arranging a concert as part of our 10th anniversary celebrations and are searching for a venue. After an early morning swim at my local pool, I meet up with Thom and we visit the Union Chapel in Islington. If you’ve never been you must go. Imagine a candle-lit gig in a church - stunning architecture, electric atmosphere and gorgeous acoustics, what’s not to like? We think we’ve found the perfect venue for the concert and will start zeroing in on a date, probably in the Spring or early Summer 2024. I couldn’t be more excited.

After this, Thom and I make our way to Bridgeside Lodge. We were featured in the local paper, The Islington Tribune last week, so I visit resident JR to show him his photo in the paper - he’s very pleased with his 15 minutes of fame! JR is a resident in his early 40s who has suffered with depression and grief following a brain injury. Since we began working with him his mental and physical health have improved exponentially and we’re really proud of his progress.

As we make our way to the office, we’re stopped in our tracks as we hear the voice of Alice Zawadzki, singing a Tchaikovsky aria for resident GH. We share our office with deputy manager Audrei Visaya and she’s always keen to hear what we’re working on. We play her the latest original song written with resident JR. She says she can clearly see how the music impacts on his mood and wellbeing and that songwriting is an invaluable outlet for his creativity.

Thursday

I meet Thom at our office at Bridgeside Lodge. After making the coffee and a healthy debate about what music to listen to while we work (Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue is a favourite of both of us so it’s a good compromise if we can’t agree!) we prepare for the afternoon. We’re being interviewed by a journalist from Caring Times - an industry publication for the social care sector. They’re really interested in the unique relationship between The Spitz and Bridgeside Lodge. As far as we know we’re the only arts organisation so deeply embedded within a care home and spreading the word could mean that other such arrangements start to appear. We’ve seen first-hand the benefit of getting to know residents, carers and families so closely and can attest to the benefit on those living in social care settings.

I then make my way into Central London for a meeting with the CEO of another organisation within the arts in care sector. There’s a strong sense of community in which we share best practice and ideas for the benefit of people living in care, and there’s a wider Power of Music consortium that’s making good progress around the impact music has on health and wellbeing.

Friday

People often have a preconceived notion of what music in a care setting looks like. At The Spitz we’re constantly trying to change that. It’s not all White Cliffs Of Dover. Many older care home residents were in their teens at the height of Beatlemania in the 60s. Research suggests that the strongest musical connections happen in our brain around the age of 14. Another way that we tackle this (entirely wrong) preconception is by introducing residents to music they may not have heard before. Why not play a current pop song to someone in their 80s? Beneficiaries must be allowed to form their own opinions. If it turns out you don’t like a certain song, fair enough. But who are we to deny someone the opportunity to form and express that opinion?

As well as performing music, we also write songs with care home residents. This is a great way for them to express themselves, to tell their life stories and look back over memories both good and bad. Today musicians Arthur Lea and Pete Wareham are having a writing session with resident JR, a prolific song-writer who already has enough songs for an album of his own! Pete is a highly-skilled producer so he and Arthur have been discussing the best way to get these tracks recorded and ready for release. I interrupt Arthur and Pete’s discussion in the hope that they’re both free next Wednesday for a session at Northwick Park Hospital - another of the venues we visit regularly - turns out they are! Working with so many freelance musicians means an awful lot of diary juggling!

The day ends with a conversation with our web designer. We’re overhauling our website as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations. It’s been a busy first full week of 2024 but one that’s filled me with enthusiasm and pride. Every week and every day is different. Organised chaos and “expect the unexpected” are phrases we use often!

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