<p>The Boston Globe had an article on music outreach in a local shelter, in today’s edition:</p>
<p>[The</a> night the television is switched off - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/10/31/the_night_the_television_is_switched_off/]The”>http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/10/31/the_night_the_television_is_switched_off/)</p>
<p>I read this with interest because I have spent the last two Saturdays as a participant in similar events. Last weekend, a small group of musicians, hired by a summer music festival organization in our town, played at a hospice palliative care program for children, where many children are severely disabled, and arrived by ambulance for the musical offerings. Some could barely hold a maraca, or could only participate through the joy in their eyes. Parents who carry burdens of care all week told us that they had looked forward to getting out for the music for days, and created bonds among themselves through drumming and singing.</p>
<p>Yesterday, the same group went to a pediatric psychiatric facility. The room was full of kids ranging from age 4 to 17, almost all of them looking sullen and withdrawn when we arrived. As the program progressed, each child or teen, in his or her own way, slowly moved toward participation, and the joy of the musicians was contagious. A resistant 4 year-old boy ended up drumming, then stood in the middle of the room and conducted the group. A teenage girl who had been in the corner, moved to sit with others on the couch, then, by the end, was up and dancing. Even the most resistant was singing or playing by the end.</p>
<p>I am just posting this so young people reading this forum can remember the incredible power of music. By the end of these sessions, we all felt as if we had known each other a long time. It didn’t seem like “therapy”, it just seemed as if we shared the music as a community.</p>
<p>These were mostly Berklee grads and faculty, and the music was Afro-Caribbean, but outreach has become important at many conservatories and colleges, and in many communities, for many different genres and styles. A key element was the incredible skill the musicians showed at interacting with these two very different groups, particularly their skill in drawing people out of themselves and into the music. These are skills that are now part of musical training in many schools.</p>
<p>I have been the group cynic, always downplaying the effects we could have with these programs, but I have changed my mind.</p>