About MusicMDs
MusicMDs is an outreach organization of high-school and college musicians who volunteer their music to promote patient healing in hospitals. MusicMDs actively assists in the healing process by providing live, one-on-one musical performances and engaging dialogue to individual patients, families, and medical staff in hospitals. Founded in Central Florida in 2009, MusicMDs has expanded to the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts as well as the Houston, Texas area. Our goal is to improve patient quality of life using music.
Faces of MusicMDs: musicmds.org/faces-of-musicmds
The MusicMDs Mission
Volunteer to: provide live musical performances for patients in healthcare settings, thereby reducing stress for patients, family members, and healthcare staff; promote feelings of well-being, happiness, and empathy through the medium of music and music-initiated conversations to actively assist in the healing process.
How MusicMDs Began
The idea of music and wellness synergy came in the fall of 2009, as Bansal siblings (Varun & Esha) discussed ideas for a community project. Thge siblings recalled that their grandmother, who died at a local hospital after battling cancer for many years, loved to hear them play music for her; in fact, she said that she preferred music over the therapy dog!
As curious young musicians, Esha & Varun researched the connection between music and health, finding the basis of this program in Music Therapy. Their findings showed that there is a significant positive impact of music on illness recovery, and they were hooked! Realizing that music-based healthcare volunteering was lacking in their community, they created an organization, MusicMDs, to provide this service in Brevard County, Florida and beyond.
Their goal was to evolve MusicMDs to become a widespread community-based effort involving many healthcare facilities, student music organizations, high school and university orchestra & band programs, and aspiring young musicians across the USA.
As curious young musicians, Esha & Varun researched the connection between music and health, finding the basis of this program in Music Therapy. Their findings showed that there is a significant positive impact of music on illness recovery, and they were hooked! Realizing that music-based healthcare volunteering was lacking in their community, they created an organization, MusicMDs, to provide this service in Brevard County, Florida and beyond.
Their goal was to evolve MusicMDs to become a widespread community-based effort involving many healthcare facilities, student music organizations, high school and university orchestra & band programs, and aspiring young musicians across the USA.