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<\/a>Adam Weiner from Low Cut Connie at Jefferson Moss-Magee Founded from loss; growing from hope <\/p>\nSince its founding<\/a> in 1999, Musicians on Call has performed for over 1 million people<\/a> in healthcare facilities across the nation. The now-nationwide program came out of a desire to give something back following extreme loss. Michael Solomon and Vivek J. Tiwary both watched their loved ones suffer through long hospital stays before succumbing to their illnesses.<\/p>\n What was supposed to be a one-off concert to say thank you to the caregivers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where Solomon\u2019s loved one had been, quickly grew to include bedside shows and then spread to other hospitals. The program now offers even more opportunities<\/a> for patients to engage in music, including virtual performances, playlist streaming, and a songwriting program.<\/p>\n Musicians on Call expanded<\/a> to Philadelphia in 2004, its first city outside New York, thanks to a partnership with Penn public radio station WXPN. In the last two decades, the program has served nearly 163,000 people<\/a> throughout the Philadelphia region, including<\/a> at Penn, Children\u2019s, Virtua, the VA, Jefferson, Lankenau, St. Christopher\u2019s Hospital \u2026 Moss-Magee is the program\u2019s tenth and newest facility.<\/p>\n On their website<\/a>, Musicians on Call points to research and science that shows music is a successful therapeutic tool. Various studies show that listening to music can lower the stress level and improve the mood of patients undergoing chemotherapy<\/a>; can release<\/a> dopamine; and can help Alzheimer\u2019s patients who have lost their ability to communicate to connect with loved ones, because \u201cmusic<\/a> memories remain in the brain after patients lose language.\u201d<\/p>\n Even before partnering with Musicians on Call, Brackett believed music would help the patients at Jefferson Moss-Magee, so she scheduled musicians to come in weekly. Now, she hopes the program will be an option for her patients for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to keep it going as long as we can,\u201d she says, \u201cand hoping to get more interest from local musicians once they see what we\u2019re doing and find out the impact that it will have on our patients. When you influence a patient in such a way, it just makes you feel wonderful. Sometimes it\u2019s better if you play for two patients here, you might even feel better than playing for 100, it really means so much to them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost as if the musician and the patient surrender the moment to the music, and it\u2019s the music that does the work.\u201d \u2014 David Falcone<\/p>\n The magic of music <\/p>\n Most hospitals partnered with Musicians on Call have similar set-ups to Jefferson Moss-Magee. In general, individual musicians work with a volunteer guide on scheduled performances. The duo then goes room to room (often with nurses and caregivers suggesting rooms of people they know will be interested), and the musician will wait outside while the guide goes in and explains the program. If the patient is interested in a performance, the musician is welcomed inside.<\/p>\n Acoustic guitarist David Falcone joined Musicians on Call the year after it came to Philly. He has gotten very good at reading the room.<\/p>\n \u201cI ask the patient, \u2018Do you feel like something a little on the mellow side? Do you feel like something more lively or something in between?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cYou can tell when somebody really just wants to sit back and relax, and often the family is there, and you get a sense from them, the patient can really use something upbeat right now, and so you play a Beatles medley or something.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike Vasilikos, an XPN on-air host and the program spokesperson, has seen these reactions firsthand during years of hospital visits.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are times when you have tears rolling down your face. There are times where everybody in the room is smiling and clapping, and every room is a different story,\u201d says Vasilikos. \u201cI\u2019ve seen patients sing along and clap and dance with family members in their bed. And then not everybody is in a positive situation. There are people that are obviously going through a lot, and I think for some, you see that two to three minutes of hearing a song was a little bit of relief from whatever else they were going through, and it can be very emotional at times too.\u201d<\/p>\n The opening day at Jefferson Moss-Magee was no different.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople said it really cheered them up and made them feel like dancing for the first time in weeks or months,\u201d says Weiner. \u201cThere was a gentleman there who had had a stroke recently, and he\u2019s a huge music lover, and he wanted to clap his hands, he couldn\u2019t physically do it just yet, but he said that gave him something to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell Myatt, a patient at Moss-Magee, sat near Weiner as he played. He says he loved that the show took place in the public space because it allowed patients to get out of their rooms, connect with others, and feel better.<\/p>\n \u201cIt made me feel good, and when I felt good, I started mingling with other people, and it was a good morning,\u201d Myatt says. \u201cI think if the patients participated, I think it\u2019ll make their stay much better, [they\u2019ll] feel much better about themselves, and get them motivated [instead of] staying in [their] room, staring at the TV. It was really great for me.\u201d<\/p>\n After the show, Weiner visited rooms to give more intimate performances. Some tears flowed, and Weiner said another important part of the day was just providing connection.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so special, emotional, really, because some of these folks are really going through tough stuff, and the healing process isn\u2019t just a physical process. It\u2019s mental, it\u2019s spiritual, it\u2019s emotional, and it\u2019s hard,\u201d he explains. \u201c[What was] important was the conversation that I had with these patients, when I hear about where they\u2019re from, and what kind of music they like, and what their health journey has been, and what their goals are \u2026 It really, really was good for my soul. I hope it was good for theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n There are multiple ways to get involved with Musicians on Call, including volunteering<\/a> as a musician or as a guide. You can also donate, or sign up to join<\/a> WXPN\u2019s 5K, the annual fundraiser for Musicians on Call.<\/p>\n