Paolo Paolantonio

Researcher

Paolo Paolantonio holds a PhD from the Royal College of Music (RCM, London) with a thesis entitled Music in the community: Investigating the effects of group music making programmes on older adults and higher education music students.
His research focuses on the effects that community music programmes and arts-based health interventions can have on health and wellbeing, considering both the perspective of the recipients of these activities and the musicians involved.
Based on the work he did from 2015 to 2017 in Art for Ages, a project developed in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise on Ageing (DEASS - SUPSI) and the RCM, in 2018 he created Music and Words. This programme is included as an example of best practice in the report Arts and Culture in every care home? published by the Baring Foundation (UK) in 2021. In the same year he was awarded in the public call for case studies promoted by the IBSA Foundation for Research and the City of Lugano in the context of the Culture and Health project.
In 2022 he was invited to join the scientific committee of the course Healing through music promoted by the USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and his project Supports through music for the wellbeing of the older population was awarded in the national call for projects Co-Designing Human Services promoted by the Swiss Association for the Promotion of Social Innovation with the support of Innosuisse.
He is currently involved as researcher, coordinator and workshop leader in the multidisciplinary project Music Park developed in collaboration with the Swiss Red Cross Ergotherapy Centre Sottoceneri Section (CRSS), the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale and the Hildebrand Clinic.