Wellspring Music CIC was formed in 2015 by Nottingham-based musicians James Tolhurst and Marc Block. In April 2019 James moved on, and Wellspring is now run by Marc as a solo practitioner.
Marc trained with OPUS Music CIC and undertook a year-long apprenticeship alongside OPUS musicians at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham.
Wellspring’s highly sensitive and responsive musical approach, through which participants are encouraged to improvise and lead, provides cultural enrichment and helps to humanise medical and care settings. The non-verbal communication facilitated by shared music-making creates a culture of enhanced social connection, community and well-being amongst patients, staff and relatives.
Marc worked as a qualified nurse for more than twenty years. He started consciously to incorporate singing into his interactions with clients after completing the OPUS Music in Healthcare training, while also working as an entertainer in care homes.
A singer all his life, Marc played piano and oboe at school, then took up the guitar at 15 and began writing songs at 16. More recently he has added harmonica, bouzouki, bodhrán and Irish low whistle to the fold, though the bouzouki and bodhrán don’t make it into hospitals. Marc has recorded three albums, and gigs occasionally on the folk scene.
I visited my dad in QMC yesterday. I was held up in traffic so I had just missed you on B47, yellow bay. Dad (his name Allan) cried because he had loved you being there and I hadn’t been there to share it. You played ‘Ring of Fire’ with him and it reminded him of my mum. He was talking about you all afternoon whilst I was with him. He loved it and it really cheered him up. Thank you. Carry on the good work.