Celebrated Pembrokeshire classical music group The Nantwen Ensemble was delighted to receive a prestigious Disruption Award from the Dementia Trust.

This grant will support a project spanning 2025 and 2026. Cellist Daniel Davies and the Nantwen Ensemble will collaborate with a composer to create a powerful new work of classical music. This innovative composition will integrate spoken phrases and stories gathered from people living with Dementia, their carers, friends, and families, ensuring their voices resonate within the music.

The Nantwen Ensemble will perform this extraordinary piece in community and performance venues across Wales and beyond, capturing the journey in a documentary film. The ensemble hopes the new composition will have a lasting impact, encouraging ongoing conversations about Dementia while being programmed for future performances.

Daniel Davies said: “Music has a unique ability to comfort, support, and respond to society’s challenges. This project is deeply personal to many of us in the Ensemble, particularly as my own grandfather lived with Alzheimer’s. We aim to connect with communities impacted by Dementia and expand understanding far beyond.”

The Dementia Trust, which envisions a world where people with Dementia and their carers thrive, provides grants and support to foster meaningful change. The Disruption Awards are aimed at projects that inspire creativity, disrupt traditional thinking, and engage public imagination.

A Dementia Trust spokesperson said: “We’re proud to support the Nantwen Ensemble’s bold and moving project.”

If you’d like to contribute, host a performance, or learn more about this initiative, please contact Daniel Davies at 01239 820 768 or [email protected]. Or visit www.nantwen.co.uk

For more about the Dementia Trust and its Disruption Awards, visit their website dementiatrust.org .