The aim of the Music Mind Spirit Trust is to enrich people’s lives through the power of music. The charity uses Music and Movement to inspire, empower and unlock creativity with specially designed programmes based on musical, medical and scientific research.

Set in 7 acres of idyllic rolling Sussex countryside and surrounded by unspoilt woods and fields, MMST’s events and meetings offer creative inspiration, rest and rejuvenation. The Old Farmhouse is a fine 16th-century listed house full of charm and history. Five generations of the family of the great English poet, Shelley, lived here.

The Music Mind Spirit Trust’s Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA — Music Mind Spirit Trust), British Opera Academy (British Opera* Academy UK (BOA UK)— Music Mind Spirit Trust) and SongTrees Programme provide uniquely designed projects to develop musical gifts and enhance creative potential through MMST’s streamlined mentorship programme.

Meet the MMST Team

Dr Chika Robertson  PhD, MMus, BA, honARAM - CEO

Dr Chika Robertson, CEO and co-founder of the Music Mind Spirit Trust, is a professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music, JA, and is on the violin faculty for the Chicago Summer Opera. She was awarded her PhD in Violin Pedagogy and Performance, and regularly presents workshops and masterclasses in the UK, USA and Europe. Chika has premiered and recorded as soloist and chamber musician for eminent musicians (incl. Adams, Bernstein, Henze, Lutoslawski, Marriner, Pärt, Rattle, Tavener & Tippett) with world-class ensembles including the London Sinfonietta & Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.  She has performed in many styles with artists including Peter Donohoe, Shirley Bassey and Ella Fitzgerald. Dr Robertson is passionate about using innovative interdisciplinary methods to benefit music, science and medicine. She is currently co-creating an exciting intergenerational music and health mentorship programme to benefit musicians, families and diverse communities through arts, education and creativity for MMST. She is an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

MMST TRUSTEES & MANAGEMENT:

MMST benefits from an eminent Board of Trustees and Management Committees, who actively provide a wealth of musical, scientific, educational and legal knowledge, incorporating principles of cultural leadership and business acumen.

MMST TRUSTEES:

Martin Redfern (Chair); Dominic Alldis; Prof Mark Ross Clark; Winny Li; Prof Nigel Osborne MBE, FRCM; Prof Anthony Pinching; Neena Vivash; Larry Westland CBE. Chief Executive: Dr Chika Robertson.

MMST is delighted to announce Trustee Martin Redfern as its newly appointed Chair, and welcomes Winny Li to its eminent Board of Trustees.

MMST’s Chair, Martin Redfern, worked for 20 years at the BBC Radio Science Unit, where he was senior producer.  Whilst studying for his Geology degree at University College London, he staged plays and operas.  His programmes for the World Service and on Radio 4 covered conventional science news and features, as well as cosmology, the nature of consciousness, spirituality and the interface between science and religion. An award-winning producer, Martin has made three features on science and religion based around the Templeton-sponsored ‘Science and the Spiritual Quest’ conference.  Martin has been an active member of the Scientific and Medical Network and the ‘The Study Society’.  He enjoys the countryside and its wildlife, archaeology and gardening, and is currently in high demand as an audio recording engineer for festivals and conferences.

Dominic Alldis has built a unique career over 30 years, spanning the rich and varied worlds of classical music, jazz and cabaret. Equally at home with a conductor’s baton, performing with his jazz trio or entertaining audiences from the piano, Dominic’s fluency in many different musical genres and flair for bringing them together in a distinctive way puts him in a category of his own. Drawing on his experience and versatility as a performing musician and educator, in 2003 he founded Music & Management to deliver musical learning events for business conferences, team meetings and leadership development programs. Since then, he has worked with many of the world’s leading companies and business schools to create unforgettable musical events, both as a keynote speaker and with symphony orchestras, string quartets, jazz bands and multi-cultural ensembles. Dominic is a Steinway Artist and an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. www.dominicalldis.com

Winny Li is Group Treasurer at PPD, Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she has contributed for nearly 20 years to the significant growth of the company and set up PPD's Treasury Function. An MPhil graduate from the University of Cambridge (Distinction in Management Studies) and fellow Chartered Accountant, her illustrious finance career at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte led to her travelling extensively to work in many different business and cultural settings for the global media enterprise, Viacom. Winny Li's career has been described as ‘having all the hallmarks of the exemplary 21st-century treasurer and finance leader.’

Prof Anthony Pinching’s ground-breaking medical work, particularly in Clinical Immunology at St Mary's, St Bartholomew's and Peninsula Medical School (Associate Dean for Cornwall), and his invaluable contribution to medical ethics and humanities (drama, poetry and music), have brought a significant and important dimension into the lives and training of today’s medics.  He is the Director of Pinner Music Festival and Music in Pinner Series, and Chairman of Ludlow Song (for Ludlow English Song Weekend).  Prof Pinching is known for his moving narrations and performances of his poetry, song cycles, anthems, carols and libretti, including the libretto for Martin Bussey’s solo cantata, ‘A Brother Abroad’ (2021), the recording of which has recently been released by Resonus Classics.

Professor Mark Ross Clark https://www.markrossclark.com/about is an award-winning international stage director who has delivered numerous lecture courses and workshops encompassing music, theatre and the visual arts for over 30 years.  Known for his interesting, insightful and humorous take on the arts in his lectures, he’s also a noted author in the field with four published books about opera, operetta and musicals.  He began his career as a singer performing a wide variety of styles, ranging from singing as a featured soloist with Ethel Merman in the Hollywood Bowl, recording with the Carpenters, and performing solos with major orchestras and opera houses in the US and Germany.

Neena Vivash is a Former CEO of Bellis-Jones, Hill Group, a vanguard provider of Patient Level Costing solutions and provider of services in the specialist areas of business process improvement and performance management. Neena’s working experience extends across a number of industries including NHS healthcare, technology, financial services and utilities. A qualified CGMA accountant, hypnotherapist, and Fellow of HEA, teaching at Higher Education, Neena has a passion for training, coaching and mentoring others and a desire to share her knowledge and experience. She is involved in the delivery of Masters programmes in Management including the HFMA Healthcare Finance MBA and MSc Management modules including Leading Through Digital Disruption and Strategy Management at BPP University.

MMST CULTURAL, SCIENTIFIC & MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD:

Honorary Ambassador: Karl-Erik Norrman, European Cultural Parliament

Robert Ashcroft, Principal at Hudson Morris Associates; Prof Paul Grob MD FRCGP; David Lorimer, Scientific & Medical Network and Character Scotland; Dr Lyudmila Nurse, PhD, Research Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford; Mary Shek; Jonathan Willcocks, conductor & educationalist; Prof Julian West, Head of Open Academy, Royal Academy of Music; Prof John Zeisel, founder of Artists for Alzheimer’s.

We would like to pay tribute and thank Prof. Paul R. Grob MD FRCGP (former Chair) and the late Dr. Peter Fenwick MB BChir (cantab) DTM FRC psych for their invaluable service as MMST Trustees for the past 20 years.

MMST PARTNERS, ASSOCIATES & SUPPORTERS:

MMST wishes to thank Arts Council England; Arts & Business South East; A & R Associates Ltd; Big Lottery Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, Cedar Court Care Home (Cranleigh); Chances4Change; Cranleigh School; Colet House; Conservatoire Concerts; ENRI-East; European Cultural Parliament; Health Education Wessex; Kuumba Youth Music; Live Music Now; National Lottery; NHS; Oxford XXI; Royal Academy of Music; Spokane Public Library, Holy Names Music Centre and Spokane Symphony, director James Lowe (USA); Stonehill House Care Home (Haddenham); The Wates Foundation; X-System Ltd; Youth Music. We would also like to acknowledge generous support from Rosie Brenan, Anthony Pinching, Kent Ross, and the late Lewis L. Golden OBE JP FCA & Patrick Brenan OBE FCA.

Bookham & Harrison Farms, a delightful family owned business on the Surrey-Sussex borders, crowned Sussex Food Producer of the Year with their international award-winning cheeses. In this exciting partnership, creative public events are presented with MMST in its popular coffee shop: The Milk Churn, featured in the Guardian’s Top Ten Places to eat in the countryside.

Partner Care Homes Cedar Court (Cranleigh, Surrey) and Stonehill House (Haddenham, Buckinghamshire) are residential care homes where the Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA) present interactive programmes of live and bespoke recorded music, designed by leading professional musicians and the residents themselves, in partnership with X-System Ltd and Live Music Now.

BBC Music Day celebrates the power of music to change lives with events across the UK and broadcasts on TV, Radio and digital.

Character Scotland is an educational charity formed in 2009 by a group of academics, educationalists, entrepreneurs and parents for the purpose of promoting the development of character in young people and intentional character education in schools. SongTrees Young Artist Musical Ambassadors benefit from Character Scotland’s global programme, ‘Inspiring Purpose’, under the guidance of David Lorimer.

Royal Society of Public Health; Health Education England – Wessex: MECC (Making Every Contact Count) supports organisations to maximise on the opportunity they have with the public in promoting health and enabling them to make changes to improve their health and wellbeing. Health Education England – Wessex, delivering MECC to SongTrees’ Young Artist Musical Ambassadors.

The European Cultural Parliament (ECP) is a membership organisation for citizens of Europe involved in the fields of arts and culture. Its purpose is to strengthen the role of cultural and artistic ideas in the debate on the future of Europe. Its work incorporates letters for dialogue, discussions and debate on crucial and burning issues of importance for European co-operation. The ECP offers a forum for regular debate as well as a meeting place, where networks, ideas and initiatives are created.

Kuumba Youth Music is a music organization working with young people of all abilities who wish to progress their musical ability and understanding. Based in the East End of London, the organization is led by and serves an ethnically diverse population.

Live Music Now is a UK-wide initiative set-up by Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Ian Stoutzker in 1977. Every year they deliver thousands of interactive programmes into care homes, hospitals, healthcare settings and schools throughout the year, providing training and employment to young professional musicians, serving as mentor/models for the SongTrees YAMA Programme.

The Royal Academy of Music is an institution with a global reputation for excellence and innovation. The oldest conservatoire in the UK, the Royal Academy can with confidence claim to embody and provide the highest quality music tuition across Europe and the rest of the world. The Academy has a strong commitment to expanding music participation through working with other organisations and in community environments. SongTrees’s main cohort of Young Artist Musical Ambassadors are from the Primary Academy, Junior Academy and Open Academy of the Royal Academy of Music, and its Young Professional YAMAs are from leading conservatoires and universities, including the Royal Academy of Music and University of Oxford.

The Spokane Public Library is an award-winning public library system in the USA. Its 6 libraries are known nationally for its unique programming, cultural outreach and commitment to social needs. Spokane is the cultural centre of the Inland Northwest region (Washington, Idaho, Montana and lower British Columbia). Set in a vast territory within the beautiful Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains, it serves numerous Native American tribal nations.

MMST works in close partnership with conductor James Lowe and the Spokane Symphony.

X-System, the brain-child of Prof Nigel Osborne and the late Prof Paul Robertson, has developed cutting-edge technology which accurately and reliably categorises music by its physical effect on the autonomic nervous system. It does this by modelling the function of the lower brain to predict the effect of music on the arousal of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The technology, known as the the Innate Neurophysiological Response to Music (INRM), has significant benefits for health and wellbeing, particularly when utilised within MMST’s Young Artist Musical Ambassadors’ unique care-home programme of interactive live and bespoke recorded music.

Registered Charity No. 1110646

Registered Company No. 05263552

In tribute to the late Professor Paul Robertson

The Old Farmhouse was acquired by the Robertsons in 1997 to realise their dream of creating a quiet and beautiful place that could be developed into a centre dedicated to music and the arts. Music Mind Spirit is the crystallisation of the life experience to date of Chika (and the late Paul Robertson) as musicians, teachers and idealists.

For nearly forty years the late Professor Paul Robertson performed throughout the world as founder member and leader of the internationally renowned Medici String Quartet. They recorded and broadcast prolifically and appeared at International Festivals across four continents, as well as at MMST events at The Old Farmhouse. He drew on this top level performance experience, together with his profound knowledge of Music and the Brain, to create unique insights into our innate ‘hardwired’ systems of Integrated Intelligence. He was a Visiting Professor in Art and Leadership to the Copenhagen Business School; Cultural Leader of the World Economic Forum, Davos and National Endowment of Science, Technology and the Arts; Visiting Professor in Music and Medicine to the Peninsula Medical School (where he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medicine degree); Visiting Fellow to Green Templeton College, Oxford; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; member of the European Cultural Parliament and an Associate of the RSM.

In 2008 he began to suffer severe health problems and performed only for special occasions. Together with Chika as co-founders of the Trust, Paul focused his energies in developing activities of the Music Mind Spirit Trust.

The charity’s aims continue with Chika and MMST’s eminent Trustee and Advisory Boards.

To delve deeper into the work of The Medici Quartet, Paul and his many cutting-edge projects, please visit the ‘Explore’ section of this website.

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