Swan Songs, an organization dedicated to providing music for individuals at the end of life, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Founder and CEO Christine Albert joined Trevor Scott to share more about the mission and growth of Swan Songs over the past two decades.

“Swan Songs fulfills musical last wishes. So someone’s nearing the end of life and they can request whatever style of music is really meaningful for them, or a local artist, a specific local artist,” Albert said, “and we bring professional musicians to play that music for them in their home or their care facility, wherever they are.” The organization has experienced such success that they have even expanded their reach, including the launch of an affiliate in Portland, Oregon.

“We also compensate the musicians because half of our mission is to support the music community. We use professional musicians who have the expertise and the stylistic genre specificity, and experience to walk into maybe an emotionally charged environment and just put on a beautiful show and create some joy for the family and the recipient.”

Albert also reflected on the personal impact of Swan Songs, mentioning her late husband, Chris Gage, a renowned Austin musician.

“Chris was there at the very beginning, holding my hand and helping me with everything. You know, we really built it together, using a lot of the skills we had learned as professional musicians, building websites and databases and accounting programs,” she said, “So he really was a co-founder, honestly, of the organization. And I’m not sure that I would have been able to do it without his support. He died on August 24th, so it’s a fresh loss for me and for the Austin community. But it’s made me more passionate about this work to be on the receiving end. I found myself sitting next to him on his hospital bed in our living room, listening to our friends Ben Jones and Andrea Magee, and the two of us were singing along. He was trying to sing, and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m one of those people.”

For those interested in supporting Swan Songs, more information can be found on their website.