In May our patrons visited our charity partner Otakar Kraus Music Trust and met the children and parents that we are supporting.

On a sunny May afternoon a group of our donors went to Twickenham to visit Otakar Kraus Music Trust - a charity that we’ve been supporting since 2017 that provides music therapy to vulnerable people of all ages. Otakar Kraus facilitates over 3,000 sessions of music therapy for more than 300 people each year.

Since March 2017 ArtSocial Foundation has been supporting the Trust and specifically the Music School that provides music therapy for children with special needs who are excluded from mainstream music activities.

We have been funding weekly music therapy sessions for 8 children with special needs who could not otherwise receive the therapy due to the shortage of music therapists. Our funding enabled the Trust to hire and train a new music therapist who took on the children from the waiting list.

On our visit we met the founder of the Trust – Dr Margaret Lobo who told us how she set up the Trust in her own garden 27 years ago. The Trust still does not have its own premises – most of the sessions take place in a purpose-built music studio in the garden of Margaret’s house in Twickenham.

We met the head music therapist of the school and some of the students. The children are a mix of different ages and have neurological conditions ranging from Autism Spectrum Disorder to Down Syndrome. Despite this, they are in no way limited in their ability to enjoy music and to develop their talent thanks to the care of the Music School therapists.

The children performed a small concert for us – some of them played violin or piano, others sang.

We felt a lot of joy listening to the concert and huge admiration for the skill and determination that the children possessed.

After the concert we went to the garden for a group photo and had a fun chat with the children and their parents.

It was a great day, full of positivity and pride for the wonderful work of the Otakar Kraus team and the determination and talent of their students.

If you are interested to learn more about the Trust – please visit OKMT website.