https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=UysGZZhz6As
I, Publius Jr, was looking for people to sign up to play the piano on the second floor surgical waiting room at the VA Hospital in Bloomington MN. I go to this VA twice a week and the piano was given as a memorial to the Hospital I think should be played more.
The 2nd floor surgical waiting area piano. To play it you need to contact the head of the volunteers at the VAMC and one can only play certain type of songs.
So a search came up with a website called, “Musicians On Call.” I browsed around on it to see what it was about and I liked what I saw on it, but it didn’t have an operation in Minnesota. So Musicians On Call couldn’t help me with my piano player mission I’m on now. I thought I’ll return to this subject and this is the article.
What is Musicians On Call?
Their “about” page says it better than I can paraphrase it.
Music is this wonderful tool that can change and shape your day, your mood, for your memories. Because of those reasons, there was no choice but to bring music to people that need it most.” —Michael Solomon, Co-Founder of Musicians On Call
In 1999, Musicians On Call Co-Founders and music & entertainment entrepreneurs, Michael Solomon and Vivek Tiwary, bonded over one life-changing moment: both had loved ones who had passed away after long hospital stays in New York.
Michael had recently lost 21-year-old Kristen Ann Carr after her battle with sarcoma. To honor her memory, friends and family including Michael and Kristen’s parents, Dave Marsh and Barbara Carr, formed the Kristen Ann Carr Fund at her request to provide grants for cancer research seeking to improve all aspects of cancer patient life with an emphasis on adolescents and young adults.
In an effort to give back to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where Kristen was hospitalized, Barbara and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund hosted a concert for the patients with the help of Michael. In support of his friend Michael, Vivek attended the concert in search of healing after recently losing both his parents to cancer, who happened to be huge music fans.
Nurses carefully transported patients to the hospital’s recreation area, arranging seats and wheelchairs around a temporary stage where Wynton Marsalis, internationally acclaimed musician, played in the common area at one of the units. IV poles were present throughout the audience, their bags forming a mezzanine audience overhead. It was just what the patients needed, one of the nurses said, and such a shame that some were unable to attend because they were in treatment or too sick to leave their rooms. It was clear that some of the patients who needed music most were unable to go to the concert.
“one of the nurses said, “…such a shame that some were unable to attend because they were in treatment or too sick to leave their rooms”
Michael and Vivek immediately reached out to musician clients and friends to set up similar concerts, and musician Kenli Mattus gladly stepped up. After a couple of visits performing in the common areas, they were asked to visit some patients in their rooms who were too sick to come to the common areas. What they witnessed in the rooms that night was magic!
Feet began to tap and heads nodded to the beat. Smiles formed on patients’ faces and some closed their eyes in revelry. His music was like a melodious breeze moving throughout the room; joyful notes drifted through the air before settling comfortably on the souls of his audience. What happened in the rec room happened on an even deeper and more intimate level inside the actual hospital room. Michael and Vivek knew they had to form an organization that could bring the same inspiration to the bedsides of patients in hospitals everywhere.
And so Musicians On Call was born, right on cue.
Hospital Patients Need This
I don’t know specific people in the VA Hospital who are there for medical treatment and are in a room there, but I go there for other reasons. After watching the co-founder of this Group on the video above I thought this is something Minnesotans need after all we have the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester MN and the University of Minnesota’s Hospital is known for breakthroughs in medicine as well.
We would like to help Musicians On Call by spreading the word around our area to set up Musicians On Call in this area. We already sent a note to the University of Minnesota’s Music Department about the piano at the VA and we sent them the link to Musicians On Call. We also said it would provide an outreach opportunity for the students in their department and other students who dabble in music in their spare time when they are not studying.
Connecting people who have certain talents with people who in their present situation can appreciate the talents is a noble idea. We aren’t looking to capitalize on their idea, but to plant some of Musicians On Call seeds here until it has become a forest and people won’t realize this area was once a desert.
More Information
If you would like to know more about Musicians On Call please go to their website at www.musiciansoncall.org.
Donate
If you’d like to donate to them Musicians On Call Delivering the Healing Power of Music
Volunteer to Play the VA Minneapolis Piano
Back to the need of playing the Piano at the surgical waiting room on the Second Floor at the VA in Minneapolis. I’m told if you want to volunteer to play it you need to visit the volunteers desk located through the Main Entrance in the Flag Atrium. You can’t miss it there’s a big US Flag hanging from the ceiling. You can check in there. You can only play certain type of songs on the piano.
Gigantic US Flag Hanging from the ceiling of the VA Minneapolis’ Flag Atrium
Thanks ~~ From this US Army Veteran known as Publius Jr.