In the key of Rx: Worcester Chamber Music Society hosts 'Music Heals' at UMass Memorial

WORCESTER — Amid the usual beat of a busy day inside UMass Memorial Medical Center — Memorial Campus at 119 Belmont St., could be heard the less expected sounds of violins, a cello, viola and flute being expertly played by professional musicians at lunchtime.

People had to walk along some corridors in the hospital to find the source, but in an alcove outside a cafeteria some members of the Worcester Chamber Music Society performed a free "Music Heals" concert.

The alcove was a small oasis with some tall tables and chairs on the side of one wall, a few chairs in the middle, and some space to stand as foot traffic continually made its way back and forth along the adjacent hallway.

On the other side of the hallway to where the concert was being performed was the Muldoon Total Joint Replacement Education Room.

The concert might have been just what the doctor ordered on this mid-November day with the holidays approaching.

One-sheet programs for the concert were available on tables.

"The power of music to elicit healing responses is well documented," said a note at the bottom of the program. "We hope you will stop and listen and that this experience will bring you some relief from any stress or trauma you may be experiencing today."

The Worcester Chamber Music Society has established a "Music Heals" concert series that began in part as a way of saying thanks to health professionals for their challenging work during the pandemic and is also based on the belief that music can actually heal.

The Nov. 18 concert was the fourth in the free series, and was free for anyone who happened to be in the hospital at the time - health care and hospital workers, patients, visitors and others.

Peter Sulski, WCMS violist, announced at the start, "We're going to play some music we hope you enjoy." He pointed out the programs "all around you."

Then Sulski, Krista Buckland Reisner (violin) Rohan Gregory (violin) and David Russell (cello) launched right into String Quartet No. 5 by 18th-century French Creole composer Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The musicians wore masks, as did everyone else at the hospital (except to eat or, later in the case of the WCMS concert, play the clarinet).

The sprightly String Quartet was played to about half a dozen people seated at the tall chairs and tables in the alcove, most of them eating lunch as they listened, and a few more sitting in the chairs in the middle. People were walking along the hallway all the time.

One person in medical attire pushed down the corridor what seemed to be a monitor. Another man, holding a boxed lunch, paused by the alcove to see what was going on and lingered. A woman stopped and picked up a program. There would be other pauses and full stops throughout the concert.

After the String Quartet's first movement was completed there was applause, and then the musicians went into the work's second and final movement.

The timing of the concert saw it being performed right as the holidays felt near, with Thanksgiving Day coming up just six days later. It was also a time when UMass Memorial was about to get stretched again, especially with an influx of respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and a flu season that is hitting the community earlier and more severely than usual.

There was more applause at the conclusion of the String Quartet.

Buckland-Reisner introduced the next work, Duo for Violin and Viola by contemporary English composer Kate Whitley.

The piece "is very evocative," she said. The playing by Buckland-Reisner and Sulski included a back-and-forth musical dialogue between violin and viola.

John Mahoney, who works in the housekeeping department at UMass Memorial, had sat at a tall table during the beginning of the concert, had his lunch, but now had to leave.

Did he enjoy what he had heard?

"Absolutely. It's a wonderful break from the pace of things here," he said.

This was the first time he had attended part of a "Music Heals" concert by WCMS.

'An amazing experience'

"I very much enjoy classical music so this was an amazing experience," Mahoney said.

Music is used as therapy at UMass Memorial Medical Center. Mary-Carla MacDonald is a music therapist in the Division of Palliative Care and also works with other patients including people who have suffered a stroke.

"We use music for a lot of reasons — emotional support, to relieve anxiety, pain," MacDonald said during an interview separate to the "Music Heals" concert.

A lot of research has been done in showing how we respond to music, MacDonald said. "Different parts of music have an effect on our biological body and our minds as well. It's a pretty powerful medium in so many ways," she said. "I've been in music therapy for many years. It could be curative treatment or end of life (support)."

MacDonald plays guitar and a drum and sings to and with some of her patients, or sometimes she might play a musical tape that they can both listen to.

She gets to know her patients through what they like in terms of music.

"I usually ask, 'What's your music? What's your music story?' " she said.

"We all have a personal relationship with music. When they talk about music they talk about themselves. They always have a friend and trust in music. I work that positive relationship they have with music," she said.

Creating sense of safety

"I play my guitar, use my voice. I have an old tank drum and have patients play it with me. It's usually a collaborative process ... Listening together creates a sense of safety. It brings them to places that bring them joy."

On the other hand, "if someone is critically ill you don't want to stimulate too much emotion necessarily," she said. "I'll adjust what I use to be the most supportive at that level."

Working with end-of-life patients, "I find that work beautiful. I feel it's a real privilege to try to figure out, 'What do they need?' "

She had one patient who told her as they were listening to music, " 'I feel happy and sad together.' I think that's beautiful. That's one of the reasons it (music) is powerful, it can hold so much for us."

Meanwhile, music's healing can include help with restoring brain and neurological functions after trauma such as a stroke, MacDonald said.

"Music is part of how we evolved neurologically. We use music to relearn things. The clockwork clicks in relearning to walk. The music has an immediate impact," she said. A person might say on hearing a piece of music, " 'That helped me remember things.' "

As for concerts such as "Music Heals," MacDonald said, "It's fantastic. It's so good for caregivers. Music is therapeutic. The more the better."

Scientists over the years have studied "the Mozart effect" that seems to connect healing with listening to the music of Wolfgang Amadeum Mozart.

Fittingly, the "Music Heals" concert concluded with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major. Guest artist Eric Thomas, clarinet, joined Buckland Reisner, Gregory, Sulski and Russell.

Over a half hour into the concert at this point, some of the original people in the audience had left to return to work or other responsibilities but been replaced by a new audience who sat down to eat, watch and listen, almost all of them very intently.

Out in the hallway someone wheeled what looked like a huge trash container.

The Mozart piece sounded accomplished and confident, with the sound of the clarinet resonating around the alcove.

People again applauded between movements, and the fourth and final movement had different pleasing melodies that all seemed to come together at the end. One more time there was warm applause.

The Worcester Chamber Music Society was founded in 2006, and Sulski has said that it has always taken the words "Worcester" and "Society" seriously, as well as "Chamber Music." WCMS, with an acclaimed core of musicians and guest artists recognized in their own right, has also become an award-winning cultural presence in the Worcester area with its diverse musical programming and programs such as Neighborhood Strings for inner-city youth.

"I love doing it," Buckland Reisner said of the "Music Heals" concerts after the Nov. 18 performance was over.

"What I love about it is you can take a space and absolutely transform it. Something happens to people's minds. They're taken out of their minds. And I like it because it's bringing music in our community to where they're at," she said.

"The pandemic was trauma, and I feel music is a good way to combat trauma. It's a privilege to come into a setting like this," said Gregory.

"We're giving a 'thank you,' " said Buckland Reisner.

The musicians packed away their instruments. The alcove remained an active spot for a break, but there were a few more vacant tables and seats than there had been during the concert.

Tracy Kraus, WCMS executive director and flutist, said that beginning in January WCMS intends to take its "Music Heals" concerts into other settings as well, including Abby's House in Worcester, which provides shelter and affordable housing, as well as advocacy and support services, to homeless, battered and low-income women, with or without children.

"I think it might be even more powerful (there). We're in their community space where people gather," Kraus said.

For more information about the Worcester Chamber Music Society, go to worcesterchambermusic.org/

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester Chamber Music Society hosts "Music Heals" concerts