Music therapists working in Cornwall will be playing a gig in a gig in Falmouth Harbour.

The performance between 12 – 2pm on Sunday, June 9, the first time a full scale musical gig has ever been held in a gig on the water.

Quaysides around Custom House Quay, Prince of Wales Pier and the Greenbank Hotel will be ringing with seafaring music such as Row, Row, Row the Boat, sea shanties and the theme from Titanic. Falmouth Gig Club, currently world champions, are loaning one of their gigs for the event.

The unique gig is being held as part of this year’s National Music Therapy Week (June 8 -15). The six therapists from Cornwall, all accomplished musicians, will be playing instruments such as fiddles, guitars, floating drums and flutes. As well as popular sea tunes they will also be giving the world premiere of an improvised piece of music based on Debussy’s La Mer.

Music therapy is delivered in Cornwall by the Council’s Music Therapy Service. Established in 2002, all its therapists are state-registered and work closely with the needs of their clients in sessions with either individuals or groups. However pressures on funding means that the future of the service is currently under review.

The Cornwall Music Therapy Trust was set up in 2006 to raise funds to help support and develop this work in Cornwall. Over the past seven years the Trust has contributed over £200,000 to support a wide range of projects such as therapy with adults including war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and clients attending the Merlin Multiple Sclerosis Centre at Hewas Water.

Current music therapy projects for children supported by the Trust includes those with life-limiting illness attending Little Harbour children’s hospice, children in wards at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and pupils in both mainstream and special schools.

Music therapy clients do not need to have had any prior musical training – indeed some have said it has been their first-ever experience of live music-making.

The Gig in a Gig is due to cast off at Falmouth Watersports slip at midday on Sunday, June 9, then row around Custom House Quay, playing in the inner basin before heading off to the Prince of Wales Pier and the Greenbank Hotel, returning to Watersports around 2pm.