SongTrees
SongTrees is currently seeking sponsorship to maintain a high profile through creating innovative intergenerational national and international performance opportunities, and developing DVDs, CDs and an enriched website to explore cross-curricular and cultural awareness.



Through exploring people's deep musical memories, research gleaned will be used as a communicative tool globally. The production of culture specific DVD's and CD's will benefit the inherent medical, educational, musical and social strands of this Project.

Through populating an attractive, fun website with music downloads, partner schools and organisations in this country and abroad will be able to transcend culture and nationality. This interactive learning tool will be developed with sponsors alongside educational, musical, technological, intergenerational social and medical experts.

SongTrees' Branch Projects: 'Sound Bites' and 'ENRI-East'

The tried-and-tested innovative SongTrees approach is currently being utilised by the following Projects:

Sound Bites: Health and Wellbeing through Musical Memories
(for further info, please see Projects/Sound Bites).

Funded by the Big Lottery's 'Chances4Change' programme, 'Sound Bites' sociological research is headed by Oxford XXI Director Dr Lyudmila Nurse, and medical research is led by Prof Paul Grob. The 'Chances4Change Coordinator is Mary Shek.

ENRI-East: Cultural Identity through Musical Memories

In association with Oxford XXI as a component of the ENRI-East Project:
Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union;
Funded by the European Commission FP7- SSH-2007-1-5.2.1: Histories and Identities-articulating national and European Identities- Project No 217227.

What is the aim of ENRI-East?
The ‘ENRI-East’ project aims to provide a deeper understanding of the ways in which modern European identities and cultures are formed and inter-communicated in the Eastern part of the European continent.

What is the role of ‘Cultural Identity and Music’ in this project?

The SongTrees project was developed by Dr Chika Robertson as a Music Mind Spirit Trust project aimed to help children gain insight into their cultural identity through sharing musical memories with their parents, grandparents and friends. It is creating a valuable archive for musical /medical / sociological research. SongTrees explores what kinds of music people from different generations remember and what associations it has.

The ENRI-East study will analyse what determines the relationship between music and cultural identity. Research will analyse the determining factors of nationalist / international expression through musical forms, their inter-generational evolution, and provide input to the development of EU cultural and educational policy.

This study is innovative, designed to explore cross-generational and cross-cultural links between music and national, ethnic, regional and European identities.

How do the data analysis & focus groups work?
Collected data is analysed by Oxford XXI and Music Mind Spirit Trust specialists. Data from quantitative and qualitative surveys are consolidated for further analysis. On the basis of the analysis of the results of the 3G music questionnaire, focus group discussions are conducted with three generations by local music school students concerning the link between favourite music and people’s identities. Focus groups are led by trained students of local schools and conservatoires.

How will policy recommendations and dissemination be developed?
Results of the analysis will be presented in discussion, with analytical papers and project reports. Policy recommendations will be provided to the local education, culture authorities, NGO’s, and presentation of the results will be at the European Cultural Parliament, Council of Europe, and mass media.

What is the next step?
A presentation will be made to the European Cultural Parliament, Council of Europe, European Youth Foundation, European NGOs European media. Additional funding is required to stage music/singing events in participating and non-participating countries of Eastern Europe. This will contribute to furthering the educational/cultural impact of the project.

Will there be a music / singing event?
A special musical event will be planned in several localities, coordinated with the local ministries of culture, specialist music schools and representatives of the local professional or amateur music groups/orchestras, to which all the interviewed families and local population will be invited. Depending on the locality, musical groups will perform a concert, including songs shared by the communities.

Who are the ENRI-East partners with MMST?

Oxford XXI provides an ongoing forum for the discussion and generation of ideas, research and collaboration on projects on sociological issues. Its founders regularly contribute to projects concerning economic and policy development, restructuring and social impact monitoring across the world.

It's Director, Dr Lyudmila Nurse, is on the MMST Cultural, Medical and Scientific Advisory Board (www.oxford-xxi.org).

The ENRI-East Project Coordinator is Dr Alexander Chvorostov (www.enri-east.net).

Professor Robertson, founding director of the Music Mind Spirit Trust, writes: ‘We can now begin to appreciate how musical forms and structures precisely mirror the underlying neurological forms and physiological structures that create them…. By mapping the structures of the Musical brain we are revealing the maps of both Personal Identity and the Implicit Laws of Social Relationship.'

To see details about the initial SongTrees launch, click on website below: