2008 Woodie Awards
YU Student starts Musical Orginization to help the sick
Yitzi Raisner
Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Arts and Culture
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Many people use music as therapy or as a medicine of sorts. Some take in daily doses on their computers or home stereos and many subway riders can only endure the trip with a steady intravenous feed. It soothes and heals us. So, if we can say that music can be used as medicine, then Michael Young, a sophomore at Yeshiva College, is opening up a traveling clinic.
Young has been playing classical guitar for around seven years. Two summers ago, an impromptu performance laid the foundation for a project which is finally coming to fruition. While volunteering at a Baltimore hospital, Young was struck by the morose, depressed morale of the patients. This morale, he found, was not solely because of their illnesses; the patients were depressed by their surroundings. "Hospital patients have to endure the unpleasant environment of the hospital," Young said in an interview. "They are denied many of the normative experiences of daily life. They have few friends around - very little human interaction at all; for that matter, they usually are not even allowed go out and enjoy a beautiful tree or fragrant flower. It's tough." Helping to alleviate the situation any way he could, he brought his guitar in one day and sang with a patient he had been visiting- a young boy with cancer. "His face lit up. I realized how much of an effect music can have on people." Since that day, Young has played for patients in other hospitals and old age homes, taking requests ("at old age homes, Jewish music is usually popular") or just playing freely. "But the idea for an organization was brewing in my mind."
When he arrived at YU, Young decided that starting a non-profit organization, gathering musicians to perform at hospitals, would make a good extra-curricular activity. He sat down one day in his first week, formulating the mission of the organization. As explained by the website, Healing Harmonies (as the organization has been named) has two goals: The main goal is "to enrich the lives of the elderly or those hospitalized with illness through comforting and uplifting musical performance." But the patients aren't the only ones benefiting. Participating in the program offers musicians "a way in which to channel their unique skills into acts of kindness, and thereby, giving back to humanity." Young emphasized this last point to me in an interview: "I don't think all the potential of the music world is being used right now." He personally financed the organization's website (www.healingharmonies.org) and began recruiting students. To allow for funding, he applied for (and awaits confirmation of) non-profit status from both State and Federal government.
Young has been playing classical guitar for around seven years. Two summers ago, an impromptu performance laid the foundation for a project which is finally coming to fruition. While volunteering at a Baltimore hospital, Young was struck by the morose, depressed morale of the patients. This morale, he found, was not solely because of their illnesses; the patients were depressed by their surroundings. "Hospital patients have to endure the unpleasant environment of the hospital," Young said in an interview. "They are denied many of the normative experiences of daily life. They have few friends around - very little human interaction at all; for that matter, they usually are not even allowed go out and enjoy a beautiful tree or fragrant flower. It's tough." Helping to alleviate the situation any way he could, he brought his guitar in one day and sang with a patient he had been visiting- a young boy with cancer. "His face lit up. I realized how much of an effect music can have on people." Since that day, Young has played for patients in other hospitals and old age homes, taking requests ("at old age homes, Jewish music is usually popular") or just playing freely. "But the idea for an organization was brewing in my mind."
When he arrived at YU, Young decided that starting a non-profit organization, gathering musicians to perform at hospitals, would make a good extra-curricular activity. He sat down one day in his first week, formulating the mission of the organization. As explained by the website, Healing Harmonies (as the organization has been named) has two goals: The main goal is "to enrich the lives of the elderly or those hospitalized with illness through comforting and uplifting musical performance." But the patients aren't the only ones benefiting. Participating in the program offers musicians "a way in which to channel their unique skills into acts of kindness, and thereby, giving back to humanity." Young emphasized this last point to me in an interview: "I don't think all the potential of the music world is being used right now." He personally financed the organization's website (www.healingharmonies.org) and began recruiting students. To allow for funding, he applied for (and awaits confirmation of) non-profit status from both State and Federal government.