Having reached 163,000 Philadelphia patients, a volunteer-based, WXPN-sponsored, NYC-born program touches down in its 10th local hospital
Published by The Philadelphia Citizen
There were a lot of people scheduled to speak, but Adam Weiner couldn’t resist sitting down at the piano before they began. It didn’t take long after Weiner, the frontman of rock band Low Cut Connie, placed his fingers on the keys for a crowd to form in the open area at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Center City, Philadelphia on June 18.
“Patients and caregivers just started gathering around the piano, and I was taking requests and just talking to the patients,” he says. “When you’re a piano player, people just tell you their life story, there’s just something about it. You sit there and people sit with you, and they just tell you their tales. So I got to know a few of these patients and hear their struggles and try to make them smile, and give them a bright spot for their day.”
It’s common to hear music float down the halls of Jefferson Moss-Magee, thanks to their music therapy program. But Weiner wasn’t just there to play. He was there to help usher in something new for the 83-bed facility: The Musicians on Call program.
The difference here is important. Music therapy at the hospital is a clinical process used to treat various injuries, such as helping a stroke patient with impaired language sing the words of a song or teaching a paralyzed guitarist how to play again using new methods. “You can use different modalities of music to address each of those injuries,” says Robin Brackett, Supervisor of Guest Relations and Patient Experience at Moss-Magee. The program is funded only by donors and available to patients alongside physical and occupational therapy.
Musicians on Call offers both community building and intimate concerts, depending on patient needs. “It’s more of a social time,” says Brackett. Concerts in public areas, like Weiner’s time on the piano, allows patients to leave their rooms and mingle with caregivers, family, and friends. For those who cannot or don’t want to leave their rooms, the musician can come to them. “It will be a soothing visit before getting their shower or going to bed.”
Founded from loss; growing from hope
Since its founding in 1999, Musicians on Call has performed for over 1 million people 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.
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’s loved one had been, quickly grew to include bedside shows and then spread to other hospitals. The program now offers even more opportunities for patients to engage in music, including virtual performances, playlist streaming, and a songwriting program.
Musicians on Call expanded 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 throughout the Philadelphia region, including at Penn, Children’s, Virtua, the VA, Jefferson, Lankenau, St. Christopher’s Hospital … Moss-Magee is the program’s tenth and newest facility.
On their website, 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; can release dopamine; and can help Alzheimer’s patients who have lost their ability to communicate to connect with loved ones, because “music memories remain in the brain after patients lose language.”
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.
“We’re hoping to keep it going as long as we can,” she says, “and hoping to get more interest from local musicians once they see what we’re 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’s better if you play for two patients here, you might even feel better than playing for 100, it really means so much to them.”
“It’s almost as if the musician and the patient surrender the moment to the music, and it’s the music that does the work.” — David Falcone
The magic of music
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.
Acoustic guitarist David Falcone joined Musicians on Call the year after it came to Philly. He has gotten very good at reading the room.
“I ask the patient, ‘Do you feel like something a little on the mellow side? Do you feel like something more lively or something in between?’” he says. “You 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.”
Mike Vasilikos, an XPN on-air host and the program spokesperson, has seen these reactions firsthand during years of hospital visits.
“There 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,” says Vasilikos. “I’ve 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.”
The opening day at Jefferson Moss-Magee was no different.
“People said it really cheered them up and made them feel like dancing for the first time in weeks or months,” says Weiner. “There was a gentleman there who had had a stroke recently, and he’s a huge music lover, and he wanted to clap his hands, he couldn’t physically do it just yet, but he said that gave him something to work on.”
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.
“It made me feel good, and when I felt good, I started mingling with other people, and it was a good morning,” Myatt says. “I think if the patients participated, I think it’ll make their stay much better, [they’ll] 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.”
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.
“It was so special, emotional, really, because some of these folks are really going through tough stuff, and the healing process isn’t just a physical process. It’s mental, it’s spiritual, it’s emotional, and it’s hard,” he explains. “[What was] important was the conversation that I had with these patients, when I hear about where they’re from, and what kind of music they like, and what their health journey has been, and what their goals are … It really, really was good for my soul. I hope it was good for theirs.”
Interested in joining?
There are multiple ways to get involved with Musicians on Call, including volunteering as a musician or as a guide. You can also donate, or sign up to join WXPN’s 5K, the annual fundraiser for Musicians on Call.
Not everyone who considers themself a musician can be a Musician On Call. Applicants must be at least 18 and U.S. residents and an active part of an acoustic solo, duo, or trio act. They must be able to memorize and play a setlist of three to five songs from the organization’s approved song database. They also must submit an audition, pass background checks, and obtain volunteer certification via online lessons; quizzes on HIPAA, hospital policies and facilities. Some hospitals have additional requirements, like immunization and shadowing.
Once accepted, in order to remain in good standing with the organization, both musical and non-musical (hospital guide) volunteers must complete one 90-minute shift each month for one year. It sounds like a lot, but, says Falcone, it’s worth it.
“It really is about the music,” he says. “We’re carriers, the music is what meets the patient, and we just happen to be the ones carrying it. I’ve seen a whole range of responses, you see people that are reluctant [but] that say okay, and the next thing you know they’re tapping their foot or singing along. I’ve seen people who just needed to close their eyes and relax, and you watch that happen. I’ve seen people cry because a song kind of touches them in a place that only they know … it’s the whole gamut. It’s almost as if the musician and the patient surrender the moment to the music, and it’s the music that does the work.”