Musicians On Call
Devoted players take the healing power of music directly to patients
by Lynne Margolis
November 20, 2000
Founders/directors Vivek Tiwary and Michael Solomon. |
Vivek Tiwary and Michael Solomon know they've got it backwards: Most people make their music biz fortunes first, and then devote their time to philanthropy.
But Tiwary, 27, and Solomon, 30, each suffered devastating losses in their lives, and believed something more than misery had to come out of those experiences. Solomon lost his then-girlfriend, Kristen Ann Carr, to cancer in 1993. Within the next five years, Tiwary lost his father, his aunt, and his mother, who was dead seven weeks after her cancer diagnosis. The two old friends shared knowledge of those hours spent in grim hospital settings, shared their grief, and finally, shared their determination to make something positive come out of all that pain.
New York's Solomon (a partner in Brick Wall Management), and Tiwary, a Mercury Records vet who heads Tiwary Entertainment Group (an artist management and consulting firm) and Starpolish.com (a Web site for developing musicians), had experience with philanthropic organizations. Solomon founded the Kristen Ann Carr Fund to raise money for cancer research and programs focusing on adolescent and young-adult cancer patients. Tiwary had organized the Penn Rocks for the Homeless fund-raiser while a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tiwary knew he needed to do more in his mother's memory than simply raise money and hand it to others. While he pondered what that might be, he was helping Solomon arrange Carr Fund-related performances by local musicians at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. One night, a nurse approached and explained that some patients were too sick to come to the lounge; she asked whether the performer could do a song or two in a patient's room. "It was really an amazing experience. I have a hard time even describing it," Tiwary recalled of that first private show. "It was a magical moment ... the one-on-one interaction between the musician and the people in the [hospital] community had a very powerful effect."
Though they were aware that studies have shown music elevates patients' moods and aids in healing or pain management, their first-hand experience was all the proof they needed. "Michael and I just thought this is something that needs to exist," Tiwary said. They designed a plan that would bring performers to the hospital at designated times to do "rounds" –- go from room to room and perform for any patient who wanted to hear them. They dubbed it Musicians On Call.
MOC's Mission
'One of the wonderful things about this program is that pretty much everyone who hears about it wants to be involved, and actively involved.'
At Children's Hospital in Dallas, Texas, Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band jams with a young musician and music therapist Lisa Jones. |
Operating at first as an arm of the Carr Fund, MOC was split off because its mission is different. Unlike the Carr Fund, MOC doesn't focus just on young adults or cancer. Though it started in Sloan-Kettering's pediatric center, the plan is for MOC to reach patients of all ages.
MOC's mission statement further clarifies its goal: "To use music and entertainment to complement the healing process and improve the quality of life for patients."
Solomon and Tiwary were able to jump-start it as its own entity via their already-established music-industry connections, the biggest of which is someone close to Kristen's parents: Bruce Springsteen.
Kristen was the daughter of Barbara Carr, Bruce Springsteen's co-manager, and Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh. Springsteen had helped start the Carr Fund with a benefit concert, and he seeded MOC by donating several sets of front-row seats and backstage passes for shows on his recently completed E Street Band reunion tour. His donations were the first to be auctioned online by VH1, which sold a pair of tickets and passes to his tour-ending Madison Square Garden show for $26,000.
MOC has since been the beneficiary of several high-profile ticket auctions. Britney Spears, the Who, Hanson, Def Leppard, the Black Crowes, and Jimmy Page are among artists who donated tickets and backstage passes to some or all of their shows.
"One of the wonderful things about this program is that pretty much everyone who hears about it wants to be involved, and actively involved," Tiwary said. "The support that we've received for this program has been extraordinary."
In just a year, the charity has grown to five full-time staffers and is expanding to its second hospital, Solomon reported. More name artists are making hospital appearances as well. Among those who have visited patients are E Street Band member Nils Lofgren (who also arranged hospital visits while touring with Springsteen), cancer survivor Levon Helm, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, jazz star Dave Koz and comedian Don Rickles.
Their managers are approaching MOC, not the other way around. But the organization's intent is not lure celebs into photo ops; while celebrity participation heightens awareness, MOC depends on "regular" artists who volunteer for in-hospital performances, workshops, lessons, and other parts of the program such as a planned songwriting project that will let patients collaborate with professional musicians. One patient has already made a CD with MOC's help. Another is receiving private violin lessons at the Julliard School. The charity is seeking donations of instruments, CDs, DVDs, and players to bring as much live and recorded music into the hospital environment as possible. Music instruction is a big part of its mission, but for some patients, just listening to music can be comforting.
Next Page: It's Not That Easy; The Big Reward; How to Participate....
Lynne Margolis is a columnist for RadioDigest.com. Before chucking her newspaper job to write for the Web, she established the pop music and radio/TV beats at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Margolis has also contributed to six MusicHound Essential Album Guides.
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