Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson, and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the practical ways music transforms everyday life – health, happiness and beyond. When you think about improving your health or strengthening the wellbeing of your community, you might think about exercise, nutrition, health care. But do you think about your local orchestra? Increasingly, research is telling us that we should. Orchestras across the country are stepping into the health and wellness space in powerful ways. They’re building programs that reduce stress, combat loneliness, and support resilience in their communities. A new Catalyst Guide from the League of American Orchestras is shining a spotlight on this movement, and today we’re exploring what it means for you and for your community and for the future of music. Joining me today from New York City is one of the two authors of The Catalyst Guide, Dr. Karen Yair. Dr. Yair is Vice President of Research and Resources at the League of American Orchestras. Under her leadership, the League has become the go to location for orchestra data and insights. Dr. Yair is driven by the conviction that these insights drive change, and also by a belief in the transformative power of creativity in the arts. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Karen.
Karen Yair: [00:01:29] Thank you so much, Mindy. It’s really a pleasure to be invited to join you and to have this conversation together.
Mindy Peterson: [00:01:34] I’m really looking forward to this conversation and introducing my community of listeners to the insights and the practical resources in your new Catalyst Guide. It was just published around Memorial Day. It was co-authored with Ted Wiprud. Shout out to him. The Catalyst Guide is free. It’s available to read on the website or download as a PDF. Tell us a little bit about who this guide is for. Is it for orchestra, musicians and administrators only? Is it for people in the medical field? Community members? Music educators? Who’s it for?
Karen Yair: [00:02:11] Well, our starting point was really the enthusiasm that we’ve started hearing from orchestras themselves. Staff and board members and musicians are all looking for ways to connect more deeply with their communities and to make a difference in new ways. But while the guide was written primarily with them in mind, it also shares some powerful stories of how music changes lives. And I think that these are stories that will resonate with anyone who loves music. My personal hope also is that members of the medical community will also see it, and be inspired to explore collaborations with their local orchestra.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:44] Well, there are so many different stakeholders, if you will, that are mentioned in the guide. So for listeners who are listening, definitely keep tuning in. If you are a musician, in an orchestra, if you’re an administrator of an orchestra. If you are some sort of medical care practitioner, whether that’s mental health, physical health. I know you have a lot of partnerships with educators for research purposes. Uh, social health, public health, members of the community. Is this guide for them as well?
Karen Yair: [00:03:20] I think so anyone who enjoys music, um, will be interested to learn about the impact that it can have in this setting. I think it’s about deepening our understanding of what music can do to support us all in our everyday lives, and to support those people who need the most from us in terms of physical and mental health.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:38] Well, it sounds like orchestras were already sort of moving in this direction of becoming a little bit more involved in this health and wellness space before Covid, and then when Covid hit that with the mental health needs. I mean, it just kind of accelerated this movement and progression in this direction with orchestra’s involvement in health related partnerships. So it’s pretty exciting to see the transformation and the the progress in this direction that’s happened in the last several years. Can you give us some examples of ways that orchestras have gotten involved in the health and wellness space for listeners who are listening to this and like, not really getting what you’re talking about here? What are some examples of ways that orchestras have gotten involved in this space?
Karen Yair: [00:04:25] Yeah, absolutely. And you’re right that many orchestras have been working in this way for years, especially offering solo and chamber music experiences in hospitals. Um, but there’s been a real shift recently, um, in recent years, towards orchestras listening more closely to their local communities and really learning about issues like addiction, mental health and the aging population. What’s resonant in their specific community and thinking of ways to respond. And I think you’re right that Covid really accelerated that shift. It made orchestras ask, um, what’s their civic role? Who else can we be serving? And since then, many have stepped into leadership roles, creating new models for healthcare and wellness. So one of my favorite stories is from the Lima Symphony in Ohio, and Lima’s executive director, Elizabeth Brown, was really the leader of this work. She saw the toll that the opioid crisis was taking in the city, and she partnered with the Prison Chaplain Service to figure out what they could do. And Lima is characteristic of many medium budget orchestras that are doing great work in their communities. And in fact, through this work, it became the first full symphony orchestra to perform in a penitentiary, joined by a chorus of inmates. And, um, I love what Elizabeth has to say about this and about how bringing the power of orchestral music into that setting created a sense of connection and dignity and healing. Specifically, she says, just by being there, we’re telling people, we see you and we’re here for you. So it’s a long term approach to fostering mental health and wellbeing. It’s not a quick fix, but it’s about transformative moments that can build cumulatively towards something bigger.
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:08] I know the Catalyst Guide or your website or both, also mentions performances for neurodivergent audiences, events that promote relaxation and general wellness, kind of stress reduction. You mentioned chamber music, performing in health care like hospitals, healthcare settings, whether it’s bedside solos that are for very specific medical needs or more of a chamber performance for, uh, lobby or public space that patients and families and caregivers can all enjoy. You mentioned the prison performance. A lot of these examples makes me think, okay, how are these being funded? Because as altruistic as many of the participants may be, at the end of the day, orchestras still have a budget that they need to balance and keep in the black. They have a payroll that they need to make. Musicians need to put bread on the table. So what are some examples of how these different performances are being funded?
Karen Yair: [00:07:16] That’s a great question. And yeah, I’m just going to loop back a little. You talked about the role of music in terms of preventative healthcare, and you talked about rehabilitation. And I think it’s really interesting to think about those two purposes, which can both be active in a hospital setting. Um, so, um, you know, for families of people who are resident in hospital for some time, it’s obviously a very stressful experience and the opportunity just to step outside of the day to day routine of treatments and medical care, and to connect with one another through an emotional and beautiful experience is something that’s really so precious at that stressful time in a family’s life.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:55] That’s a good thing to point out, because that’s preventative for them, for those caregivers and gives them just a little bit of escape. You know, I mean, just even when you’re in the moment at the hospital, which can be sort of a triggering environment to begin with, just having that opportunity to escape, even when you’re right there in that setting, I would think would be really highly beneficial.
Karen Yair: [00:08:16] Yes. And in terms of rehabilitation, I was talking with Shawn Clair, who’s a violinist from the Knoxville Symphony, and he was talking to me about his many years of experience performing at the bedsides of patients and specifically young children. And he’d worked with one young child, I think, age about three, who had, um, due to a spinal condition, had never actually been able to twist his head to the right. And Shawn was playing the violin for him and moving around the bed. And the child, without any kind of intervention or treatment, was following the violin with his eyes, and he turned into spine in a way that he’d never done before in order to. Follow the sound and the sight of the violin. So there can be those really unexpected outcomes from this kind of work. Nothing that could have been planned, but something that’s, um, you know, just resulting from the joy of that people experience in being part of a live musical performance.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:13] Oh, wow. What about that question about the funding? Is that something? How are what are some examples of funding for these different performances and experiences?
Karen Yair: [00:09:24] Well, there are foundations that will support this work, and that’s how some of this work has got off the ground in orchestras. The example from Lima was actually a pilot funded by a League of American Orchestras grants program, which is no longer active. But the American Orchestras Futures Fund provided innovation funding for orchestras across the country. And that was what kickstarted that project. So you’re right to point out that orchestras often need some kind of upfront investment to build the partnerships that are so crucial to this work and to invest all the staffing time that that takes. And then, of course, there’s the challenge of sustaining it. What we do find is that the work is so impactful and so meaningful to people in an orchestra’s community, that donors will often step up. Once a program has been established, and none of us want to put more pressure on our donors who are already very generous with their resources. But this is the kind of work that does inspire people to donate and to get more involved with their orchestra. So simply in financial terms, there can often be a return that can allow the work to continue and sustain itself over time once the impact becomes evident to people in the community.
Mindy Peterson: [00:10:33] Well, I could imagine that you get some very unique donors who probably aren’t your typical donors. This and if they choose to donate, this is not necessarily siphoning donation funds away from other orchestra donor channels. It’s maybe, Boy, I’ve never donated before to the orchestra, but this particular outlet has gotten my attention so much that I want to now donate here so I could see that it could be not necessarily siphoning away, but bringing in new donors. Am I right on that?
Karen Yair: [00:11:05] Yes, and especially younger donors are so much more concerned with mission and achieving impact in communities. I think this is attractive to people who are interested in music, but are really interested in challenging social problems and creating a better community for everyone to live in.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:23] That’s a really fascinating insight because I know orchestras everywhere are looking to lower their average age of attenders and community members who are involved in their orchestra, so that’s really fascinating to hear that link between younger community members who may want to get involved as a result of some of these initiatives. Before we leave that topic, I know one other area is medical research, where partnerships between orchestras and scientific research centers are providing this sort of symbiotic relationship with mutually beneficial relationship, researchers are looking to deepen their understanding of how music is influencing physiology, mental health, neurology and the musicians really want to provide and and develop those insights so that they can have more concrete data on the impact of their work. So tell us a little bit more about some of the developments in that area.
Karen Yair: [00:12:21] Yeah. And I think you’re right to pick up on the musician’s experience, because what we’ve learned is that for a lot of musicians, this kind of work adds another layer of meaning to their jobs. Sure. You know, the ability to take everything that they’ve practiced for so hard over so many years and to use it for social good as well as for artistic good is something that’s very motivating to a lot of musicians. And it’s it’s wonderful to see that. Um, looking at the medical research area in particular. I think this is an area where we’re going to see more and more growth, and I think there’s more and more interest from funders on the medical side in getting involved in this work. We profile a few of these projects in the Catalyst Guide, and they include the Phoenix Symphony that’s working with Arizona State University to study music’s impact on dementia patients. We look at the LA Phil and the University of Southern California, and they’re researching together how music training can shape children’s development and even their brains. And in Utah, we took a look at some new research findings, which are illuminating the extent and the nature of anxiety and depression in Utah. And those findings prompted the symphony and the opera to launch a series of wellbeing concerts this year. So the research and the music is kind of working both ways. We’re learning from research as a basis for identifying needs. We’re using music as a therapeutic tool. And then we’re evaluating and tracking the impact of that research so that we can learn and refine the way that this works delivered.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:54] Very exciting. You talked a little bit earlier about local needs in each orchestra, taking a look at their individual community, what the needs are there and how they can respond to those needs. And I know being local and looking at those local needs and opportunities is one of the best practices recommended in the catalyst Guide, which totally makes sense. Every community is unique, has its own health and wellness challenges, and also its own unique resources available. So tell us a little bit more about some of those best practices. One is to respond to local needs and opportunities. Anything else you want to say about that, and if not, what are some of the other best practices that are recommended in the Catalyst Guide?
Karen Yair: [00:14:41] Yeah, the best practice that I really wanted to highlight here is around partnership and partnership is really the key to understanding what’s needed in a community. Connecting with healthcare professionals and listening to their needs and dreaming together. The people who are working with patients every day are the ones who are best placed to shape meaningful programs. And I think for a lot of orchestras, it’s about spending the time to go out into the community and to get to know potential partners without any particular agenda, just to understand what’s going on in youth services in your community, what’s going on with the homeless population, what’s going on in the scientific and medical community, and creating the time for those conversations isn’t always easy, but it’s really the bedrock of this work, and investing in it is what’s going to lead to the most impactful work in the long term.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:32] Love that. One thing I like, too, about your best practices was start small and build incrementally. I thought, that’s great because I love hearing about these success stories and some of the brilliant partnerships that are happening and the research that’s going on, these collaborations between scientific research institutions and big orchestras. And I can imagine a small rural orchestra hearing this, or an orchestra that’s larger but just doesn’t have a pattern, a track record of engaging in this space quite yet. Hearing those stories and being a little overwhelmed, like, oh, wow, that that sounds amazing, but where would you even start? So I love that reminder to just start small. And even if it’s what you just described about going out into your community and just listening and networking and building some of those relationships, learning about what the needs are in your community, what the desires are, what the resources are. That can just be a great place to start. So I love that.
Karen Yair: [00:16:35] Exactly. That’s something that we heard loud and clear from the orchestras that we interviewed, the importance of starting small and growing. And in fact, a lot of orchestras do have medical professionals on their boards, so that can be a great place to start. That can give you, you know, inroads into the local healthcare community. So, you know, thinking about board makeup and thinking about who you want to attract onto your board, who can bring the voice of the community into your orchestra is a is another way to go about this.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:01] Another one of the best practices that I really appreciated in the guide was to prepare musicians for new settings and listeners. And I know previous guests have talked about how music brings out emotions in people. It’s been called the sound of emotions, and a lot of musicians will find people approaching them with really heavy details about their life. And maybe I haven’t shared this with anybody, but when you’re playing, it brought up these emotions and it reminded me of this situation I was in. And sometimes it’s traumatic that things that they’re sharing and musicians aren’t necessarily trained on how to handle that and how to respond and how to not have resulting residual trauma themselves from hearing these stories regularly. And so I like that you talk about the best practices of giving some kind of orientation to musicians so that they know how to handle some of these situations. Some musicians do get certified as therapists, but just having some basic information about what may come up and how to handle it, I think is a really great guidance to give.
Karen Yair: [00:18:11] Absolutely. You know, obviously, a guiding principle for the medical community is do no harm. And the same applies here. How do we ensure that the work that we do does not inadvertently cause any harm, both to the people that we’re seeking to help and to the musicians who are enabling it? And that certainly is a challenge without substantial funding, to make sure that our musicians are fully supported in this work. You’re right to point out it does call for skills beyond traditional performance and beyond the kind of learning that takes place in conservatories. So training and capacity building and drawing on outside expertise are all really essential. And some orchestras have been quite innovative in how they’ve gone about this. To go back to Lima again, um, a board member of the symphony was able to offer some pro bono support so that musicians had someone to call when they wanted to talk through an experience that they’d had, and to have a thought partner in how they might deal with it. And this board member had particular professional expertise in that area. So it was something that they were able to offer. But I think, again, exploring through partnerships how the medical community can support the orchestra in ensuring that musicians are well equipped and taken care of in this kind of work is really important.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:26] Great insights and I just love at the very beginning of that where how you just distilled it down to do no harm. And I think it would be really helpful for musicians to just keep that sort of guiding North Star in their minds as they go into some different spaces that they’re not used to performing in and maybe performing for various audiences. You know, you probably will come into situations where you’re, oh, this is new. Not really sure how to respond. And if they can just keep that North Star, that compass point in mind of do no harm. That would be really helpful, I would think. Just to keep in mind. Well, the guide is 24 pages, so it’s not overwhelming, but it’s full of really intuitive insights but also really practical, pragmatic resources. In fact, there’s a health and wellness resources section in it that was really fascinating to look and see some of the different entities and resources that were available there. So really, really helpful in a lot of ways. Looking forward, do you have any predictions about what we’ll see happening in this intersection of orchestras and health and wellbeing? Any new trends or new initiatives that you predict or have seen coming?
Karen Yair: [00:20:37] I think it’s only going to grow. Momentum is really picking up around this work, and I think we’re going to see more and more collaboration between the medical community and the artistic community, for sure. There’s a lot of organizations working to build the infrastructure in that area. So I think the various initiatives that we’re seeing across the country are going to become more cohesive and more connected as time goes on, so it’s all really exciting.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:00] It is definitely. I’m just going to quote a paragraph in the catalyst guide that I found really exciting. It said the pace of innovation and partnership building we are seeing among orchestras strongly suggest that community well-being is rapidly becoming an important, ongoing part of orchestra programming. This work is blossoming across orchestras of all sizes, in every part of the country and every kind of community. It roots orchestras in people’s lives, and I love this next. It says it gives agency to musicians and helps them build new skill sets. It builds networks and draws in new donors. It deepens the impact of the music and the artistry. We are dedicated to sharing. For patients, caregivers, families and musicians alike. These developments could not come too soon. So really, really loved that quote. Well, people are listening to this regardless of what stakeholder demographic they fall into. If they’re musicians, orchestra administrators, health practitioners, community members, and laypeople, if they are listening to this and thinking, wow, this sounds really exciting, this sounds amazing. I’d love to be a part of moving the needle forward in this space of arts and health. What recommendations do you have for them to best utilize the catalyst guide, or to get involved in any other way?
Karen Yair: [00:22:24] Mm. I’d use the guide both for inspiration and for practical help. Um, you can read the stories, you can reach out to the orchestras that are featured in the guide. And, um, as you said, Mindy, take advantage of the long list of resources at the back, which covers everything from training providers to support organizations. I think it’s a really good jumping off point. Um, we certainly have a lot more to learn about work that’s going on in this area and how we can promote best practices, but there’s a lot there to get you started.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:51] Totally agree. Love that. I encourage listeners to jump in and read through that catalyst guide. I think it’s one of those things that you start reading through it, and it just gets the creative wheels turning. It gets those creative juices flowing. And whether you see something that catches your eye and you think, oh, I could do that, or we as an organization could do that, or if it’s an idea that triggers you to think of your own idea, that’s different. I think that’s a really great starting point, reading through and getting those ideas flowing. Well, thank you so much, Karen. This has been beautiful to talk about this wonderful guide. Love it. Is there anything else that you want to say before we close out that I didn’t already ask or that we didn’t already discuss?
Karen Yair: [00:23:36] Yes, Ted and I were lucky enough to talk with about 15 individuals from 25 orchestras from this guide, which was an amazing experience to have. And I just wanted to say on behalf of both of us, a huge thank you to those league member orchestras who were generous enough to spend time with us, talking through their experiences and sharing their expertise. Um, so grateful that we can learn from their progressive work and share it with the rest of the field and with communities like yours.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:05] Beautiful. And yes, on behalf of me and my audience, I thank them as well because we’re all benefiting from their experience and from them sharing that with you. So thank you. Well, Karen, as you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Is there a song or story you can share with us today in closing?
Karen Yair: [00:24:30] Thank you. Yes, I thought I’d share a couple of experiences from my time working at the UK’s National Foundation for Youth Music that have really stayed with me over the years and inspired the work that I do now. And the first was a year early years centre in a community that was affected by poverty and addiction. And I was lucky enough to watch a session led by music leader, who was just working with very basic percussion instruments, and the music leader would just strike a drum or a xylophone and pause and wait for a baby or a parent to respond. And it was the simplest kind of call and response, but it built connection between family members for whom attachment was a real struggle oftentimes. And it was just wonderful to see the eye contact and the gurgles of the babies made as they connected with their parents through this very simple music. Musical communication. The second experience was at a youth club where, um, I saw teenage boys from rival crews working with music leaders. And these boys were asked what kind of music they wanted to make, and nothing was imposed on them, and the music leaders then helped them to overcome their skepticism about the whole thing, to join in, and eventually to push themselves to go further than they ever imagined that they could in creating great music that they could be proud of. And by the end of the program, these boys were performing on stage, really full of confidence at the work that they’d done that they never thought they’d be capable of. And they actually said in the evaluations for that project that they’d realized that emceeing was a better way to earn respect than clashing in the street. So.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:11] Wow, how rewarding would that be to hear?
Karen Yair: [00:26:14] So both of those moments showed me that music can be so much more than a personal experience. It can support mental health, build belonging, and help communities to heal and grow. So yeah, those experiences have always stayed with me and guided the work that I do today.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai