PrintSweet Tonic
Participants in Sweet Tonic – Music for Life perform for family and friends to celebrate their achievements.Photograph courtesy Australia Council for the Arts.
The Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts assists senior Australians from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds to improve their health and wellbeing through music. Managed by Musica Viva, Sweet Tonic is a two-year project being run at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney. It has attracted participants from many backgrounds in the greater Macarthur region and their repertoire of songs reflects cultural diversity through music from England, Norway, Mauritius and Ghana. Participants with a medical history of chronic illness and asthma reported increased lung capacity and remarkable improvements in fitness levels since starting on the project.