About Us
We are a small but fantastic team at Musical Moments both looking after the work behind the scenes and delivering sessions in various areas of the UK
Maggie Baker
Managing Director
Beckie Mackin (Morley)
Founder
Matt Brinkley
Adaptive Movement Specialist (Consultant)
Izzy Swinhoe-Standen
Music Therapist (Consultant)
Our Story
Let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start
Musical Moments™ provides music sessions for all groups and individuals in the community, aiming to bring joy, happiness and social inclusion to everyone that we work with.
It all began in 2011 with Beckie Morley who had just graduated from Leeds College of Music and started delivering music sessions for the care home where her Nana was living with dementia at the time. She noticed how well the residents responded to music-based activities and entertainment and couldn’t help thinking that there didn’t seem to be enough musicians out there doing this important job so began offering her sessions to other homes in the local area.
The sessions went down extremely well and Beckie soon found herself delivering sessions to over 60 care homes around Cheshire and Staffordshire. She took on staff but as the demand for the sessions grew and requests were coming in from all over the UK. In 2017 she took the decision to franchise the business with the aim of being able to provide more sessions to care homes, plus more jobs and careers for musicians out there.
In 2019 Maggie Baker joined the company as a Franchisee in North Yorkshire. Maggie had 6 years of music teaching experience in both Mainstream and Special Education settings and left her role as Head of the Arts for a Group of Special Schools in Leeds to embark on a new business venture. From the first session Maggie fell in love with Musical Moments™ and all it had to offer. Within 6 months she was fully booked and looking to take on her own staff.
In 2020 The Covid-19 Pandemic hit our company hard. With all care homes locked down for 18 months many of our team found work elsewhere and in 2021 Beckie decided to pursue her other business in fitness and handed the company over to Maggie to take forward.
Maggie took over as Managing Director in December 2021 and along with the remaining team is very positive about the future. Bookings are coming in thick and fast as care homes have re-opened and are keen for our activity to return. We are once again receiving calls from across the UK for our activity so are looking to rebuild the team and extend our offer to reach more community groups and individuals.
Our Community Musicians
Joanna Gawthorpe
Harrogate and Wetherby
01423 209068
harrogate@musical-moments.co.uk