Dr. Natalie Bradford
Director of The Music Man Project Charity
BSc Psychology (London University)
BA Music (University of Essex)
MSc Performance Science (Royal College of Music)
PhD (Royal College of Music)
In the summer of 2014, following completion of her music degree, Natalie was introduced to David Stanley and the Music Man Project. After several months of training and observing alongside David, Natalie opened the first Music Man centre outside of the Southend area. Maldon MMP was thus established as the first satellite group running alongside the original Southend centre. This marked the start of the national and international expansion programme and highlighted a significant first step towards the future vision for the Music Man Project.
The Maldon students very much enjoy performing both at their own concerts, and in conjunction with the other MMP groups for the larger scale productions. Natalie has played lead roles in the major Music Man performances, including both of the London Palladium shows (2015 and 2017) and the more recent production at the Royal Albert Hall (2019). Natalie is significantly involved in expanding the Music Man Project both nationally and internationally. She has also been instrumental in organising overseas trips, namely South Africa (Sizanani), India (Bangalore) and Nepal (Kathmandu). She has been heavily involved in all aspects of these visits, which have provided an amazingly interesting insight into the cross-cultural aspects of the benefits of music participation.

Natalie has recently completed her PhD after five years of study and the Music Man Project formed an integral part of this research. She explored the benefits of participating in music on the well-being of adults with Down’s syndrome. As musicians we all know and see the wonderful benefits of music on a daily basis. However, empirical research was lacking to support these anecdotal claims. The results provided ground-breaking evidence to suggest that music can support all aspects of well-being in adults with Down’s syndrome, including both students that attend music classes on a regular basis, and those who undertook a 10 week programme of music-making, within the MMP environment. This project was original both in methodological design and its contribution to knowledge, in this new and under-represented field of research. For those interested in further details of the project, the entire PhD is available for download.
Outside of her Music Man role, Natalie enjoys playing her violin and saxophone. She is a member of All Souls Orchestra, Langham Place, and has enjoyed performing at the Royal Albert Hall on several occasions for their annual Prom Praise flagship concerts. She also enjoys teaching at an adult community music school, leading a string ensemble and teaching individual violin lessons. When not involved in music, she can often be seen out running with her crazy Springer Spaniel Skye!

