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. Pretty much all of us have experienced either being hospitalized or visiting someone we love in the hospital. And for most of us, this is a pretty stressful experience. Not a pleasant one. The only exception I can think of is when my son was 13, he had an emergency appendectomy, and once he recovered from surgery and was beyond that pain, he loved being waited on hand and foot by the nurses. He didn’t have any chores. He was allowed to watch TV all day if he wanted to. He had a motorized bed that he loved playing with, so I had to pry him out of that hospital with a crowbar. But for the vast majority of us, being in a hospital brings anxiety, fear, pain, loneliness, stress for patients for sure, but also for the loved ones and even the staff who care for them. And this time of year, during the holidays, those emotions are only amplified. Enter the nonprofit Musicians on Call. For over 25 years, this organization has been matching volunteers with healthcare facilities nationwide to deliver the healing power of music where it is most needed. Its musicians have performed for more than 1.2 million patients, making it the nation’s leading provider of live music and hospitals. Today, we’re joined by Musicians on Calls COO Katie Epley to explore how musicians on call spreads notes of hope and healing when people need them most, and also why demand for these programs is skyrocketing, and how we may want to join people like Bruce Springsteen and Kelsea Ballerini in being part of this mission. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Katy.
Katy Epley: [00:02:00] Thank you so much, Mindy. I’m so excited to be here with you. And it’s so funny about your son not wanting to leave the hospital. That is rare.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:08] Well, believe me, I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Katy Epley: [00:02:11] I’m sure.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:11] I’m about ready to start bribing him. Like, please, just let’s go home. Yeah, so he did talk me into letting him spend the night. Because the night previously, leading up to us realizing he had this appendix issue, he was in so much pain overnight, and I didn’t realize that he woke me up really early in the morning, and he was a little bit traumatized about going home and experiencing another night like that of being in pain. And so I’m like, okay, you can spend the night. Because they had given him permission to leave that evening. And so I’m like, okay, you can spend the night. I stay there with them. And by the next morning I was like, climbing the walls, like, let’s get out of here.
Katy Epley: [00:02:51] Yep.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:52] Yeah. So but yeah, that’s. Yeah. Most people do not want to be hospitalized for good. You know, good reason. It’s it’s stressful. And, um, I talking about my my kids, my daughter came up to visit him the evening that he was there. She was really stressed by that. She’s his big sister. And seeing him in that situation was really stressful for her. So tell us about musicians on call. Um, yeah. How do you describe the heart of the organization and tell us what delivering the healing power of music looks like in practice?
Katy Epley: [00:03:28] Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, what you just described, you know, being in a hospital room with your son, with your daughter, coming to visit him like that, is just paints the picture of exactly what we do. We walk into a hospital. We’re assigned a certain floor to go to, and a volunteer guide knocks on the door, and they go in and they say, hi, I’m Katie, I’m with musicians on call. Would you like to hear a song? And usually the family is like, you know, a song. And I’m like, yeah, I have a live musician in the hallway that will come in right to your bedside and play a song just for you. And nine times out of ten, they say, yeah, come on in. And we bring the musician in and everyone is surprised. They’re like, oh, I wasn’t expecting this, right? It’s not normal to when you’re in the hospital to have someone with a guitar walk into your room and play you a song. So typically the volunteer guide would ask, you know, what kind of music do you like? And then the musician would play something as close to what that patient likes as they know, and they would do one song right there at their bedside. And, you know, for the siblings that are there, you know, that’s a chance for them to feel normal again, to see that, you know, their brother or sister laughing, dancing, smiling like it really provides some normalcy in those kind of situations.
Katy Epley: [00:04:49] So that is musicians on call at its core. We are a non-profit organization. We bring live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients and healthcare environments. And, um, that that is our mission. And we do that by having, like I described, a volunteer guide and a volunteer musician going room to room to play directly at the bedsides of patients who are unable to leave their beds. So we’re not really just visiting patients. We’re visiting the patients, the family members and also the caregivers who are there around the clock taking care of patients. And, you know, especially right now in the holidays, you know, they don’t get Christmas off a lot of times they don’t get Thanksgiving or other holidays. And so, you know, a lot of times people want to go into the hospital and give back during the holidays, which is fantastic. But, you know, caregivers need support all year long. You know, veterans need support all year long. So like our programs aren’t just at the holidays or Veteran’s Day. We go into the hospitals all year long to bring music and joy to patients, families and caregivers.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:53] That’s interesting that you mentioned that about the holidays. That can be a time where people are more inclined to volunteer. And that just reminds me when I was teaching a studio piano students, we would for a time, we would go into senior centers at Christmas time and do sort of our Christmas recital in one of the senior centers. And I, I did that for a couple of years and then ended up one of the senior centers said to me, and I’m so glad they clued me into this. They said, you know, we get overwhelmed with offers for this at Christmas time. Would you ever consider doing another time of year? Because we love having these groups come in, but we get overwhelmed at Christmas time and then we get nothing the rest of the year?
Katy Epley: [00:06:41] Yep.
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:41] Yeah. So interesting. Yeah. Now, you mentioned the live music and you said recorded music. So tell us how the recorded music offering works.
Katy Epley: [00:06:50] Yeah, well, it’s funny because, you know, when I first started musicians on Call almost 19 years ago, which.
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:55] Is almost as long as they’ve been in existence. Right?
Katy Epley: [00:06:58] I know. Right? Yeah, it was a long time ago. So when I first started, we would box CDs, different CDs and put them like 200 CDs in a box with a CD Walkman. For anyone who’s listening that remembers what that is.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:09] Oh, yeah.
Katy Epley: [00:07:10] And batteries, two little Double-A batteries. We would tape to it and mail those to hospitals around the country. Um, but we have, um, you know, definitely upgraded with the times. And so now we have, um, Amazon Fire tablets that we send to hospitals that are pre-loaded with, um, streaming music. Bose has donated headphones, noise canceling headphones that we can send with those. So that way if someone doesn’t have a device with a, you know, Spotify or Apple Music or something like that, we can send them music that we’ve curated, playlists that, you know, one of the playlists is called dose of Joy that has like healing anthems, um, and different songs on that. Other ones are, you know, chill, refill, which is like the more relaxing music that people might want to hear. So, um, that is our mock streaming program, but our primary program is our mock bedside program, and that’s what I was describing, how the volunteers go room to room. Um, we’ve also adapted that program to include virtual performances. So that way.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:10] You know, Covid, I think. Right, right. That sort of come out of the pandemic.
Katy Epley: [00:08:15] Yeah. We’re kind of forced to do that in pandemic, which was, you know, actually, I hate to say that we thrive during the pandemic, but that is when, like Jason Derulo volunteered with musicians on call and all these other artists that, you know, everyone was at the beginning of Covid was were stuck in their homes and, you know, they couldn’t get out and perform for people. And so we had, you know, everyone from Reba to Darius Rucker, Jason Derulo, I mean, we had all these artists that would do special programs for not just patients in the hospitals, but caregivers who were, you know, on the front lines being essential workers. And so we tried to do as much as we could to give back. So we would host zooms where the nurses and staff could get on the zoom and interact with the musicians. And, um, it was it was a, you know, of course, a hard time for everyone, but it was really special to have so many people who wanted to help others and wanted to give back to the frontline caregivers during that time. So that’s mostly virtual, where, um, we can have a guide and a musician on the screen. Hospitals can do closed circuit TV where they can put it on their TV screens, in the patient rooms for them to watch. Um, we do a special Hope for the holidays program, which is coming up, um, that we do every year. That’s like a prerecorded program. But then we also have weekly program that’s live. So we have a volunteer guide and a musician that’s tailored for pediatric patients, or one that’s for veterans and one for behavioral health. So try to try to hit all the audiences that, um, was something that they would be kind of up their alley.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:47] Nice. And I know your website’s real clear that this is not music therapy, it’s entertainment. Now, I think you also offer some kind of a songwriting program. On a more limited basis. Like just for special requests or special grants. Can you tell us just real quick about.
Katy Epley: [00:10:04] Yeah, yeah. You know, it was one of the mock songwriting I’ve had. One of my favorite experiences with that was we had a grant in Nashville to do a program with the senior center, and we, which is where we write and record music with patients. And so we came in to the senior center, and there was about 10 to 12 seniors that participated in the first day. Everybody was about five minutes late. They show up and they’re like, what are we doing? What do we have to do? We’re required to be here. You know that attitude. And then we start talking about what we’re doing and we’re playing music and we’re writing songs. And then we were there every week for six weeks, and then the next time we came, everybody was on time. And then the next time we came, everyone was in their best dressed outfits and like, really participating. And by the end of it, there was a patient who, um, had really long hair. It was a man with really long hair, but he didn’t have any legs. He was in a wheelchair. And his lyric that he wrote was, um, that he still, you know, he had a chance to dance and that he still has his hair. And, you know, it was like the song all about joy and the things that we’re grateful for.
Katy Epley: [00:11:11] I think the song was called I Am Grateful. And so everyone went around listing all the things that they’re grateful for. And by the end of it, we had a song called I Am Grateful. And one of the. For anyone who knows Nashville, in Nashville, there’s a place called Music Row, and on Music Row is where all the buildings where if you write a number one song, they’ll put a banner up that says the name of your song written by, you know, whoever. And so one of the women was probably in her 80s and she said, I moved to music. I moved to Nashville when I was 16, and I always dreamed of having my name on a banner for writing a hit song. And so by the end of this, mock songwriting. We had written this song. We had it made onto a CD that we got to give to everyone, and we had them perform it in the cafeteria, and we made a banner that said I Am grateful with their song title and all their names, who it was written by, and we hung that banner in the cafeteria. And I’d like to think that, you know, that really meant a lot to her.
Mindy Peterson: [00:12:12] Oh very cool. You’ve said that the research supporting the healing power of music is now so strong that you can’t expand quickly enough to meet demand. Are there specific studies or technologies or real world outcomes that you that are really driving this increased interest?
Katy Epley: [00:12:33] You know, um, there’s so many studies. Every time I turn around, I feel like there’s someone sending me a new study on music and health. And, you know, we know that music has been proven to lower blood pressure. It reduces anxiety and depression and sometimes helps suppress pain in patients in the hospitals. And so, you know, there’s all kinds of research that shows that. But I don’t know that that is the thing that’s increasing the demand. I you know, my opinion is that there’s so many people who are don’t want to be in hospitals anymore after Covid, you know, they don’t want to be around anybody who’s sick. And there used to be all of these people volunteering, not just with musicians on call, but in hospitals in general that just aren’t doing that anymore. Like volunteerism is really, really down. And I think that we’re getting all of these inquiries from hospitals trying to bring new programs into their hospital because there’s just not enough to, you know, for their caregivers, for the patients, for the people, you know, patient satisfaction help, helping with patient experience, giving them, you know, the experience of being in a hospital, as you mentioned, with your son, you know, you were ready to go home, you know, and so trying to bring a little bit of light and joy, I think hospitals are craving that more than anything.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:51] Mhm. Well, and you mentioned earlier something about the introduction of that musician and that live music really, uh, bring some normalcy to the environment, the room for both the patient and for their loved ones or caregivers, whoever’s in the room with them. And music really can transform the environment. It can, it can. I’ve heard people describe it as bringing the humanity into the room that otherwise is feeling very sterile, you know, and, and anxiety producing, especially if you’re in a hospital room. Can you tell us about some of the most meaningful changes that you’ve seen in a patient or a hospital environment when music is introduced in this way?
Katy Epley: [00:14:37] Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, I’ve been in, you know, as I said, I’ve been here 19 years and I have been in thousands of hospital rooms, and there have been so many times where I have gone into a patient’s room where the patient is non-responsive. Where, you know, the the caregiver has said, oh, you can play for them, but they’re not going to respond. And then you, the musician, starts playing and then you see their toes start tapping.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:01] Oh my. Oh.
Katy Epley: [00:15:03] And when that happens you’re it’s just unbelievable. And you know and we call these things that happen like that mock moments. So like around here our staff if you say like oh my gosh I had an mock moment last night. You know, someone has this story of like something that you couldn’t, couldn’t have, you know, made happen if you tried. And, you know, one one day I was at a hospice center and we went in and played for a woman, and she was unresponsive. And the musician walked in and there was a caregiver sitting in the room with her, and he just started playing a song. And, um, that song, every every Rose Has a Thorn. That’s not the title, but that’s the lyric, right? Okay. And he started playing that song, and the caregiver just started crying. And he played the whole song. And at the end, she just looked at him with tears in her eyes and she said, how did you know how to? How did you know to play that song? And he was like, well, you know, I just when I walked in here, I just felt like that was the song I chose for her today. And she said, when I come on my shift every day, I walk in here and I play that song because that is her favorite song.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:13] Oh my goodness.
Katy Epley: [00:16:15] Like, how does that happen? You know.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:17] Wow.
Katy Epley: [00:16:18] So there’s just been over the years, like, things like that just happen and, um, you know, we call them mock moments because there’s just so many of them. I could go on for for days, but it’s really incredible when you see, you know, music really move someone in that way.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:34] Wow. Well, musicians on call does have a huge list of partnering celebrity musicians. You mentioned a couple. I mentioned a couple in the introduction. You partnered with Dolly Parton. You mentioned Reba. Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Wynonna Judd, Luke Bryan. But it’s not just country musicians I know. The first Musicians on Call concert was performed by Wynton Marsalis, and Bruce Springsteen was an early supporter, which, if we have time, we can maybe talk about his involvement in the origins of MLC. But you also have a lot of non-celebrity volunteers. What? Tell us what draws musicians, including so many celebrity artists, to partner with MLC? What feedback do you hear from them after they’ve participated?
Katy Epley: [00:17:18] Well, you know, the celebrity musicians are so helpful because they’re the ones that draw the awareness to musicians. You know, you hear Keith Urban shows up at a hospital, you’re going to hear about it, right? Yeah. And, um, and, you know, it’s Keith Urban actually played in a Nashville hospital, and it, like, changed a family’s life. Like, he was there and, um, played for a patient who had been, you know, going through a really, really hard time, a terminal illness. And it was the last time they got to see their child light up and smile. And they have this memory that they will carry for life, right? Um, so so the celebrity involvement is so important and they get so much, um, back, you know, emotionally from that, um, when they go into the hospital. But then the core of our program is our, our regular local volunteer musicians. We cannot do musicians on call without our local musicians. So, you know, if we’re in Richmond, Virginia or Boston or, um, Phoenix, you know, those aren’t typically cities that you think of as music cities, right? And so when they have a lot of really talented musicians and we need those, those local volunteers to be the ones that are going to the hospitals every week.
Katy Epley: [00:18:32] We try to be there every week when we go into a new city. Um, so that way the the staff get familiar with our program and know that our volunteers are trained, they know which rooms to go into, which rooms not to go into, and they follow all the hospital protocols. So we’re try to be there on a regular basis. And we’ve even heard caregivers request to work like I’m working Wednesday night, because that’s when musicians on call is going to be there. So, um, so we can’t do our program around the country if we don’t have local musicians. So we have, you know, people who can sing and play the guitar, some people who sing, and then they bring in an accompanist with them. So we have people who might play classical guitar or might play a different type of instrument, even some wind instruments. We have some people coming in and playing those, and, you know, it’s when you’re in the hospital, anytime someone comes by, if you’re feeling up to it to have a little bit of music, it just really brightens your day and like you said, brings normalcy back into your life.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:28] Yeah, I think you’ve answered a little bit of my next question, which was I was going to ask how recipients of this gift of music are identified, like, how do you decide who gets a visit from a musician, and how do you match the artists with the patient? But it sounds like you have more of a schedule of having a volunteer go into a facility and then do. Does the nurse team kind of give them some room numbers, like, hey, this person might be interested, check in with them. How does that work?
Katy Epley: [00:19:56] Well, usually we actually go to the nurse’s station and we ask, is there any room you don’t want us to see? If you want us to skip a room? Like if someone should not be bothered. So that way we know. Um, we try to if we’re going to a specific unit, we try to get to everybody on that unit so no one feels left out. Okay. And so our guides are trained and just knock on the door. And that’s why it takes a special kind of volunteer to be comfortable enough to just knock on anyone’s hospital door not knowing what’s going on on the other side. Right. So I’m knocking on the door, going in and saying, hi, I’m Katie and I’m with musicians on call. I have someone out here that’ll play a song for you if you feel up to it. And you know, that way the patient gets the choice. Yes or no. Because typically when you’re in the hospital, you don’t get a choice. Like you’re taking this kind of medicine, you’re having this test, you have to have this the surgery. You don’t get many choices. So to be able to say, no, I’m not feeling so good right now. Thank you anyway, at least we’ve empowered them to make a choice. Yeah, and typically if we then move on to the next room, you sometimes will see someone’s head poke out of the door and they’re like, wait, did you just say you would bring music into my room? And then we’ll circle back and go back and say, yeah, I.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:02] Changed my mind. Yeah.
Katy Epley: [00:21:05] So, um, so yeah, it’s really, you know, we don’t always know who we play for. We might never know who we’ve played for. I’ve been out wearing my musicians on Call t shirt, and someone will stop me and say, oh my gosh, you guys played for my mom, or you played, you know, this was years ago, but. And then they’ll tell you their story. And because of HIPAA and all the privacy and hospitals, you know, we never know. We don’t we don’t have a chart with names or anything. We just are knocking on the doors. And, um, you know, sometimes we’ll see on social media someone will share their experience with us, which we love, because then we can follow up with them to to share their story. But it’s, you know, we never really know who we play for.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:47] Yeah. For musicians who aren’t celebrities, but they do play an instrument. They are a vocalist, whatever it is. What is musicians on call? What is their criteria for their volunteer musicians?
Katy Epley: [00:22:01] For the musicians, you have to be at least 18 years old to. You have to do a background check. And we have certain criteria for musicians. You know, the music has to be appealing and we kind of have like a rating system to make sure music is soothing. We’re not playing any kind of like heavy metal in a hospital, obviously. Um, so we have a program team that will review every application and screen it for suitability for a hospital. And then sometimes we just have to coach some musicians on what lyrics are appropriate. You know, we’re not going to sing anything about loneliness or dying or crying or, you know, so we have a hospital approved songs that we recommend people to sing And, um, you know, if a musician, if a vocalist wants to team up with a friend to go as a pair, we can do that and have them go room to room together. And there’s also opportunities for non musicians. Um, which I was describing the guide role. Right. And that is so important because we can’t do musicians on call without the volunteer guides either. So the volunteer guide applies through Musicians on Calls website. And then we direct them to one of our partner hospitals to apply there as well, because they have to get a volunteer ID badge at that hospital. So once we have that volunteer at the hospital and they have their badge, then they’re approved to escort musicians throughout the hospital. So the volunteer guide knows, like which floor to go to, which rooms you can or can’t go into, depending on the different types of precautions in the hospital. So it’s not as easy as just, you know, oh, I’m playing music. I’m going to go show up at a hospital. Like we have a lot of training that we make sure that musicians and guides know, you know, what HIPAA laws are and how we can’t take pictures in the hospital. We protect patients privacy and infection control, all of those things that make sure it’s safe for both the volunteers and for the patients.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:54] Yeah, well, as a musician, that would be very reassuring for me to know that if I sign up for this, I’m going to have some training. Because as somebody who is not living in that healthcare setting and that world, I know that I don’t know what I don’t know. You know, like, I know there’s a lot of things out there that I like. I’m sure there’s stuff I need to know here, and I know I don’t know it. So it would be really nice to know that that training comes along with signing up for volunteering. And I’ll just point out to you, while I’m thinking of it, you do have a volunteer application on the Musicians on Call website, and I think most of your volunteers volunteer, like once a month, is that right?
Katy Epley: [00:24:34] Once a month? Yeah, because we know volunteering you’re giving up of your time and, you know, being away from your family. And we appreciate that and respect that. And so we just require people to volunteer once a month. So that way they can stay. You know, the rules of a hospital can stay fresh in their mind. Yeah. And, um, yeah. And I think it’s also reassuring for the musicians knowing that they don’t have to worry about where where do I go? What do I, you know, what rooms do I go into? That’s why the volunteer guide is there. And we can let the musician know. Like, you don’t have to worry about any of that. You’re focused on what songs you’re going to play, and you know your music while you have this escort that’s guiding you through the hospital?
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:09] Sure. Anything else that you want people to know who may feel intimidated about volunteering? In addition to knowing that there will be some training? Anything else that you want them to know?
Katy Epley: [00:25:21] I would just say, anybody going to our website, it’s musicians on call, and I think it’s volunteer where you can fill out a volunteer application. I always tell people the hardest part is just getting started. So filling out the application and submitting everything, getting approved. You know, just knowing that that process and getting approved by the hospital takes some time. And the training videos take a little bit of time, but that’s an effort to give, you know, gold star training and make sure people feel comfortable once they get into the hospital setting and making sure both patients and volunteers are protected. So once you get started and get past the training, that’s the hardest part. Then you can just show up once a month and you’re going to know where to go, what to do. And it’s about two hours out of your month and it’s really rewarding. You could be having the hardest day, whether it’s at work or at home, and you’re just like, oh, now I got to go to the hospital. You know, there’s one more thing to do, but by the time you get there and you start volunteering, by the time you leave, I can almost guarantee it. You’re going to be like, oh, man, I just I just heard ten people say I made their day like it is the best medicine. Even if you’re not a musician like you will change somebody’s life and their experience in a hospital. I can almost guarantee it. So I think it’s just it’s worth the time to put in the application and the training, because what you get back on the other side of it is so, so fulfilling.
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:45] Oh, and you mentioned two hours is that that’s kind of like the shift. That’s like the.
Katy Epley: [00:26:50] Shift. Yeah. Yeah. And so we try we get there. It’s typically at 530 because most of the um, you know, the doctor’s visits and all that have ended by then and people are kind of winding down. So we try to see as many people as we can between about 530 and seven. So sometimes we say two hours just to be safe. But yeah, it’s it’s not two straight hours of performing. It’s a lot of walking around talking to people, making introductions in patient rooms. But we usually tell musicians to have, you know, 3 to 4 hospital friendly songs prepared. You know, some that are upbeat, some that are a little more mellow, and then you kind of rotate those songs from room to room and, um, depending on what people want to hear.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:30] Yeah, that sounds very doable. I mean, I in my mind, I guess I was thinking, oh, if you’re volunteering, you’re probably spending your whole Saturday there or something like that. But oh yeah, two hours. That’s very doable.
Katy Epley: [00:27:41] Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:42] Yeah. Um, just a couple, like seasonal factors that I want to point out. And one of them you are just kind of alluding to, this is obviously this is an incredible gift for recipients. But this is also such an incredible opportunity for volunteers who may find the holidays to be a really hard time. I mean, giving back, like you said, it does give so much joy to know that you’ve made somebody’s day and it helps us get our minds off our own troubles or our own loneliness. Taking action is a hugely potent antidote for anxiety, and this particular action could be a huge catalyst for gratitude. Just seeing somebody who’s in maybe a worse place than you are, or have different troubles than you do. I’ve heard that saying that if we all put our troubles in a big pile and looked at them, would probably take our own troubles back with us. And like, you know what? I never heard.
Katy Epley: [00:28:42] That.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:42] Yeah, yeah.
Katy Epley: [00:28:43] I think you’re right.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:45] I think I’ll stick with this baggage. So, you know, just seeing somebody else’s troubles could be just a simulation for gratitude, which is a powerful stimulant of joy in and of itself. So I think this could be really just a joy inspiring activity and way to give back for the volunteers. Yeah. I’ll also mention oh, go ahead.
Katy Epley: [00:29:09] I was going to say, and you know, a lot of people, when January 1st hits, you make your New Year’s resolution to go to the gym or, you know, something like that, but maybe make it your New Year’s resolution to sign up to volunteer. I think that that is a great time to get started. We have programs in about 2425 markets across the country, and I’m always looking to add more volunteers, even if we’re not in your city, you can volunteer virtually with musicians on call, and that’s where you can log in through zoom. And we host virtual programs for patients and hospitals across the country where we’re not can’t physically be yet. And so we do have opportunities for everyone.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:48] Mhm. One other seasonal factor I’ll bring up is you’re a nonprofit organization. So if listeners are looking to give a year end tax deductible gift, I’m assuming you’re a you can take advantage or you can be a recipient of that.
Katy Epley: [00:30:02] Yes. Absolutely yes. Musicians on call org is our website. You can make a donation to support our programs. And you know we would be so grateful for that support.
Mindy Peterson: [00:30:12] Okay. And then a couple non-seasonal factors. One, as we’ve already mentioned and you just referred back to we need these volunteers year round. So maybe you know, hey, come January 1st, that’s part of your new year plan and strategy for a goal or um, a way of giving back or bringing joy into your own life is giving back in this way. And then another sort of non-seasonal factor or question if somebody maybe they’re working in a healthcare setting or a hospice or, or they have a loved 1 in 1 of these settings, is there a way for them to request that musicians on call come into their facility if they’re not already there? Or how do they find out if the musicians on call even offers services in their facility?
Katy Epley: [00:31:01] Yeah, that’s a great question. I think the most timely one, if someone has a loved one in the hospital today and and is like, how can I have music for them? Um, we do have a virtual request form where we can set up a virtual visit for someone if it is a timely thing. So, you know, going to our website and submitting a form for that. Um, we also have a hospital application on our website so hospitals can go and submit their information, uh, where they can request a program. And, you know, that does take a little bit of time to to review the applications and figure out if we’re able to expand, but then we have our virtual programs that happen, you know, all week. And so we can also work with the hospital to set that up for their patients to have to tune into our virtual programs as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:31:49] Wonderful. I want to close with just a quote that I saw on your website by Kelly Clarkson. She said being involved with musicians on call has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I consider it a great gift to be able to share music and bring smiles to these brave children and their loved ones. It is healing for us all and I can’t wait to do it again. So I love that quote of hers.
Katy Epley: [00:32:16] I love that so much. I’ve been lucky enough to go on several of Kelly’s hospital visits.
Mindy Peterson: [00:32:21] Oh really?
Katy Epley: [00:32:22] And yes, she is. I mean, just like a ball of energy. A ball of, like, Normal. Like you wouldn’t think that of such a massive celebrity. Yeah, but, you know, she comes in her. Sometimes she would do Christmas visits and she would come in her Christmas sweater and no makeup, and she would just be there with the kids. And sometimes she would spend five and six hours at the hospital because she was not going to leave until she saw every single kiddo that wanted to visit and didn’t want the cameras following her around or anything. Like she has a heart of gold. And we are so lucky that Kelly Clarkson has volunteered with us as much as she has, so that’s awesome.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:04] Well, and as big a name as she is, I’ve got to imagine she goes into rooms where people don’t know her. I personally don’t follow country music super closely, and so I could be one of those people where she walked into the room and I’m like, oh, how nice, somebody’s playing a song for me.
Katy Epley: [00:33:22] Yeah, I know that has happened. That has happened before with others and, you know, but, you know, people are if you’re the kind of person who’s coming into a hospital as a celebrity, you know that their heart is in it for the right reason and they are not going to care at all. And, you know, we’re so lucky to have gotten so many great musicians, both celebrities and non-celebrities, to volunteer with us in the past.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:45] Ah, well, thank you so much for the work that you’re doing, and just all that you’re doing and your team is doing to enhance lives with music. It’s so fun to hear about this, and I hope listeners will be encouraged to go on your website and check out all that you offer and check out the opportunities to get involved, whether it’s financially or with donating time, whether they’re a musician or not. You have opportunities. So love that. Um, Katy, 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. I’m sure you have tons of them, but is there a song or story that you can share with us in closing today?
Katy Epley: [00:34:27] Yeah, I do, and it kind of goes back to what you were asking about research earlier. Earlier. And, you know, after I had two kids, I had to have a minor surgery. And, um, when I got a letter from them a week ahead and it said, hey, if you need anxiety medicine before your surgery, make sure you request that within like 48 hours. And I was like, what? Why would I need anxiety medicine? Like, do I need anxiety? And now I wasn’t anxious, but now I’m anxious, right? And so I thought to myself, I’m like, wait a minute. I have been telling people for 15 years that music reduces anxiety. It helps with pain management. It does all these things. I was like, why don’t I try it? And so this was during Covid where you couldn’t bring anyone to any, you know, into a hospital with you. But I had my coworker who is a musician and volunteers with us, and I told her, I said, hey, Kelly, I know this is random, but will you be like on call for me when I go into my surgery? If the doctor says you can come in pre-op on zoom. Will you play some music for me? And she was like, yeah, of course. Yeah. And so I get in there and I’m starting to get anxious. And I told my husband, oh, I should have got the medicine.
Katy Epley: [00:35:33] And he’s like, you’re fine, you’re fine. I go, you know, he can’t come back with me. So I go back and he said, the doctor. I say to the doctor like, hey, you know, I work for musicians on call. And we talk about music reducing anxiety and blood pressure and all that. And he’s like, you can’t have a musician come back here. And I was like, well, I know, but I do have someone on zoom that’s waiting that could play music. And he goes, do you have someone on zoom ready to play music for you? And I said, yeah, I do. And he goes, well, bring him on. So we got my phone out and we had her and he set the phone up. And this surgeon was like, do you know this song? Do you know this? And he’s like asking her all these, like, rock songs. We surgery started like we were full on surgery. She’s six songs in. The nurses are dancing, he’s dancing, requesting songs. And I’m like, he’s like, how you doing? And I’m like, I’m good. Like, this is actually fun. So when you talked earlier about how music can transform the environment of a hospital room like I, that was the day I like, put musicians on call to the test.
Mindy Peterson: [00:36:36] You experienced it firsthand.
Katy Epley: [00:36:37] I did. Like the anxiety went away. The the environment clearly was different. I can pretty much bet that no other nurse or doctor was, like, dancing around a room during surgery before. You know, so, um, I, I fully believe that music can transform a hospital room. It can transform the experience of being in a hospital. And it can reduce, for sure, reduce anxiety levels when you have music playing, um, or an experience like musicians on call, because we’re creating not just the music, but the human connection of having someone there with you, you’re sharing that musical experience with someone else, and it’s creating all of that connection. And, um, so that’s my coda. Since I can’t sing or play anything for you, um, I just want to share that experience because I, I put it to the test and know it works.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai