Classical Music As Neuromedicine

Lucas Amory

It all started pretty innocently one mid-April afternoon -- my friend, Catherine Huang, put a cryptic status on her Instagram story, calling any and all pianists who might be interested to participate in a secret but exciting project. Catherine is a magnificent pianist from the Bay Area, already with many ties in the young musical community due to the sheer number of musical camps she’s attended in the past, and I jumped at the opportunity. Before long, I was involved in a delightful recreation of the slow movement of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Piano Sonata, with each of nearly 20 young pianists around the United States contributing a few bars in an ultimate compilation, dedicated to spreading joy through music in times of crisis. We’ve marketed under the name of H.O.P.E. (Harmonies Of Pianists Everywhere), and in only a month we’ve pushed out four such videos, with larger initiatives and more direct community service in the works.

Amidst the terror and tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians have found alternative ways to collaborate digitally while sequestered at home. Videos like those H.O.P.E. have produced are not uncommon -- violinists Julia Fischer and Augustin Hadelich recently collaborated with upwards of 10 other accomplished violinists globally to recreate Johann Sebastian Bach’s D minor Chaconne. Perhaps more famously, actress Gal Gadot worked with other celebrities to put together an acapella version of John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Outside of H.O.P.E., I’ve compiled a Pixar medley with my friends from the community service outreach group Back to BACH to share with children worldwide, and I have plans in a couple weeks time to take part in a virtual piano trio with two musicians all the way in South Korea. 

But there are more hands-on and direct ways musicians have been contributing to the fight against COVID-19. A recent New York Times headline read “I.C.U. Doctor brings Classical Music to Coronavirus Patients”; the doctor in question was Rachel Easterwood, who works the night shift at the New York-Presbyterian Allen hospital in Manhattan, and dabbled in music before pursuing a medical degree. Dr. Easterwood brought in musicians from the nonprofit Project: Music Heals Us, and after a few concerts for the emergency room staff of Allen, they were playing over the phone for patients on ventilators, or those ready to be sedated and intubated.

This pandemic has upended the lives of the entire human race, but it also helped me come to terms with the importance and the need for musicians. My whole life I’ve made an effort to give back to my community, as I’ve found it hard to confront my feeling that this art has more selfish qualities than selfless. But quarantine has helped me realize that we are not just vehicles of composers’ legacies, nor are we just entertainers for a minuscule niche of privileged society. Rather, we are emotional and mental healers, dedicated to an art that we cherish as much as we do because of the medicinal effects it’s had on our lives. This is precisely why we hold our performance experiences so dear to our hearts. I think I can say now without hesitation for the first time that I am proud to be a musician, pandemic or no pandemic, and I am eager to help heal as much as I can for as long as I live.