Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing:

June 27, 2015

I had made plans to pick up Guille – our second oboe – at one. I made enough room in my car for him; the rest of the room was for the double bass. We set out for Highway 88 under the bright midday sun (…), it was the first concert of Músicos para el alma.

Daniel, one of our trombone players, who teaches a class for people wanting to finish their high school at the National Psycho-Physical Rehabilitation Institute (INAREPS) had an idea. Most of the patients there – some are hospitalized – have all types of physical and/or psychological disabilities- and go to this center for rehabilitation in order to improve their quality of life (….)

We realized that it would be impossible to try and do certain things even before we started. So, without further delay, we put on our hats, and we winked an eye to the hard working doorman, who was crazy surrounded by wheelchairs and crutches mixed with laughter and loud talking. We started playing Mozart´s Serenade “A little Night Music”, and the audience responded warmly.

I expected to see a lady (Graciela) who works at INAREPS; she had told me she would be there with one of her patients. I looked around the place, overcrowded by now, with many people even standing outside in the porch, but did not see her. Obviously, she was not there (…)

We played other music pieces that my memory has hidden behind the emotion of that experience. When the concert was reaching a climax, I saw Graciela coming in and pushing a bed, yes!  A hospital bed!, those beds with wheels you see at any hospital.

On that bed, a young girl was lying (her age I could not tell; her name was Luján), blank staring at the ceiling. We made an effort to keep on playing, with a lump in the throat, and tears running down our cheeks, we kept on playing (…..)

Then, something happened that we would never forget. In a couple of minutes, the music was like a guiding light and that blank stare changed into a smile of joy and thankfulness. Graciela was near her caressing her. Before the concert finished, she went back to the room with a different Luján on that bed (…)

Guille and I went outside. The sun was warming the siesta hours. We put the bass in the car and got in. I felt I was in no hurry at all. And I realized all of a sudden that there is no need to go far to go somewhere. Sergio Gugliotta. Música para el alma, Mar del Plata, December 2013.

October 2014

Yesterday, as I was about to finish my round at the University Teaching Hospital, I came across a lovely gift in the Central Hall. We were all very intrigued, and almost in a second we became part of that celebration of happiness, the only aim was to have a good time.

It was all about enjoyment and happiness, not just in the audience but also among the musicians. Communicable happiness! By my side, there was a lady with a fan who was giving water to her little daughter.

To my surprise, she was a member of the choir. She sang with a sweet voice and got everybody smiling around her as she sang…. She fanned an old man standing next to her who was holding a bag…..

Another woman, who played the violin, danced and danced and laughed as she created melodies with her friends. Then, voices were heard, as if coming from a chamber orchestra, the musicians themselves were surprised…

They were the patients themselves who could not control that impulse to join such a gifted moment!

I am thankful for having been there yesterday! I am thankful for the emotion and the tears, and much more than that I am thankful for the smile I had on my face for the rest of the day!

I would like to thank the physicians, nurses, elevator men, staff and receptionists, who are in the trenches every single day although they may seem moody, THEY ALWAYS FINISH A CONVERSATION WITH A KNOWING SMILE, so you leave happy, hopeful, and proud of being alive.

I want to thank the physicians who in the middle of a hectic working day took a break to teach us that life is life when enjoyed.

A big word of thanks to all of them because all this is simple though difficult to sustain. I will do my best to always remember what I felt when they smiled at me, and I will try to follow suit. This happened at the University Teaching Hospital and the musicians are Música para el alma.

Carlos Andrés Pellegrini
University Teaching Hospital, October 2014

Her name is Camila and she was 5 years old when we visited her at the Conín Foundation in Mendoza.

I remember that after playing for the children present, we invited them to play with our instruments.

Camila asked her nurse to help her get to the cello. With my help she grabbed the bow and began to move it on the strings.

Her happiness was contagious. Camila, her nurse told us, always used to be quiet and still. The music had awakened her!

As we were leaving, we went down a staircase and while we were putting our instruments away, we saw Camila appear again on the first floor, helped by her nurse: She went down step by step, the whole ladder, just to play the cello for a while longer.

Camila suffered from cerebral palsy and they had never seen her so happy.

Photo: Agustin Benencia

In May 2019 my daughter Naomi was hospitalized at the Juan Pablo II Children´s Hospital in the capital city of Corrientes. She had a brain tumor.

Some days before the surgery, a wonderful morning, Musica para el Alma visited the hospital and ward 2, where my daughter was.

I will never forget that fantastic, magical moment. Naomi was immensely happy

She enjoyed the incomparable voices and the love and care from all of you.

Today, Naomi leads a normal life thank God. I will never forget those angles.

Thanks a million!  ♥️

Today it was a blessing to see you at the Garrahan Hospital. Let me tell you that in my experience as a teacher, you may have an idea about what you expect your students to achieve; however, you never know how much you really achieve. Just like you wish to reach people with your music, though you do not know how far you can get, the stories you may go through, the souls you pass through, and today you were able to dig deep into my soul. 

I am from Corrientes, and life actually brought me here two months ago in a struggle together with my son, who is only 3 and was diagnosed with leukemia. Here I met you, you touched me deeply. That chamame was tender loving care in my banishment, you took me back to my place, my town, my home, my roots and my love for dancing, especially chamame.

A big hug for each one of you and I wish God restores to you double of what you give!

“Good evening, Jorge and the entire Music for the Soul team, this is a personal message of thanks and recognition above all.

I want to thank you for all the thanks I received, which overwhelmed me a little not because I am shy, but because the protagonists are you. Not everyone goes to a hospital. The world of hospital is the world of hospitality on the side of the disease. (…) You approach the sick.

About the patient should say two words because in general the word patient is spoken and associated with the word patience. When in reality the word goes back much further, from Latin and is linked to misery, disease. The word sick is used less and is the infirme, which for some reason lost its firmness. Surely for some reason your soul, that energy that holds us firm, lost its balance and you from the Soul that you have try to infuse new sap to the sick.
 
(…) All the more, it is valid, when the engine that printed movement to Music for the Soul, has been the illness and death of a loved one. More when one sees that the tools of medicine are finished to save someone young. It is a terrible experience and in general people who go through it try to escape death.
 
The human being escapes death in every possible way, so I say that not everyone can transpose the doors of a hospital. And what you do is approach the sick, in all its facets. For example, in the whole tour you took today through the hospital. I have seen some of you get excited, I have seen, for example, transpose the doors and look for a little boy and touch him almost touching his soul with the violin. That (…) however professional or genius of the violin can not be done by anyone. So, it is really to value and to recognize.
 
I repeat, it’s always about escaping death. A lot of euphemisms are used to escape even the word death. To escape to the Hospitals. To escape the sick and not visit them, abandon them, etc. Etc.
 
(…) Doubly then praise the task of all of you. And doubly commendable the memory of Eugenia as you could transmit it and light a fuse so that nothing less than 2000 musicians can approach this task. Which reaffirms once again that music on a divided planet, divided by humans, music goes through everything and is a universal language that is worth a thousand words.
 
(…) (On the other side is the) disease that, unfortunately, also has no borders. Those who approached Music for the Soul, whether German or Chilean, Buenos Aires or Cordoba, recognize in the patient that need for someone to caress them, comfort them, to recover the soul.
 
So well, serve these words to encourage them to continue this work, which obviously has no visible limits, I see from the Website that they have reached other countries. And encouraging more and more people to be close to the sick.
 
So, Music for the Soul, really a strong, strong, strong hug and go you forward, and beyond. Sincerely.”

I just wanted to share an experience we had today and it left me very mobilized.

We went with soul music to a city hospital. This time without having programmed it, we ended up playing in a very close home of the hospital where people who have been ill for a long time live. When we entered we found a very old and beautiful house, the little we could see.

Without knowing very well with whom we were going to share the music that part the morning, little by little we were seeing people approaching and the different stories were coming to us. They told us about two women (we could meet them) that left us all speechless and very moved. The first woman hospitalized since the year 58 connected to a very old pulmotor, always in the same place … and the other woman since the age of nineteen because she had polio.

Carolina Gallo, Music Violinist for the Soul

P.D: Susana (in the picture above on the right, in a wheelchair) told us that she loves classical music since she was a child and that she always listens to it on radio and TV and that her dream of listening to the music she loves live was fulfilled yesterday.

They told us that they had made a note in the newspaper to both of them, I share them !!!!

Teresa:

https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2018/04/07/la-leccion-de-teresa-en-su-ninez-fue-victima-de-la-polio-pero-desde-hace-60-anos-busca-cada-dia-una-razon-para-ser-feliz/

Susana:

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/ciencia/como-vive-ultima-victima-gran-epidemia-polio-nid2299962

This is the neologism that must distinguish us, the meaning behind our project: donate music, the only art that knows how to speak to the heart even of those who can no longer see, and who can rekindle the hope in those who have been off, in those who do not have more strength, in whom they only feel a weight for their peers … Because music is able to free the spirit from the limits of the body, and allows anyone to feel light, and be one with all, like the notes of a pentagram, which can compose a symphony only if they are together and united.

And if anyone can not help us physically, that does not feel helpless, because it will represent the pauses of that wonderful score that is life, and the pauses, sometimes, can be more important than the notes, because they grant the sense of waiting and also of reflection for what is heard (and for who listens). If we know how to open our hearts and listen to the words of those who have nothing more to say, then our goal will have been achieved, and our musical firmament will be a constellation of the smiles of those who, finally, at least for a moment, may forget their miseries and take flight with the notes, to free ourselves with us where only the eye of God can make us all feel equally important.

Sergio Valentino, from the Music for the Soul group, Naples

“Musicaltruism” for those feeling the need to fly

Who we are: The Project includes professional volunteer musicians, and was born in Argentina based on María Eugenia Rubio´s initiative, then grew and spread to other provinces and countries. Today we are more than 2500 musicians from several cities and countries. MPA is a non-profit association, which has staged over 400 concerts and is celebrating its 7th birthday in 2019.

Our aims: We offer our professionalism at the service of people of different age groups both in hospitals or nursing homes in need of positive stimuli and entertainment. Our aim is to make their stay or hospitalization happier and less stressful, at least for a couple of hours, providing even a therapeutic benefit.

For whom:  Time and availability, as part of our commitment, are offered for free, and depending upon both the space and time available in the health care centers, hospitals and hospital rooms where we may have a chance to provide spiritual happiness to patients.

There are no special requirements, it is all just about sharing time which is also be beneficial for the musicians, for mutual enjoyable experiences, in spite of the monotony and melancholy typically associated with hospitalizations and systematic health care.  

Why?: Every professional artist knows that the best moment in their own experience is when the audience leaves aside the problems and anxiety affecting their moods, and lives relaxed moments and shares emotions and sensations that only music is able to trigger; with that objective in mind, the artist´s mission is fully accomplished, and satisfaction is deep.

You do not play music just for yourself, and those who live for music and thanks to music know that: the true and only conversational partner is the person who enjoys art. This is exactly the moral and physical commitment of an artist: to make the audience feel alive and moved.

For those who live in the world of art there is nothing happier than that; and if achieved for free, without any economic interest, satisfaction will be the deepest ever.

In brief:  we are fully available: whether it is sick children, adults, or elderly people, or people who are bedridden or housebound because of their disease. This is our commitment: to do heartedly what we do every day, that is, to play music!

There is no limit to generosity, and our commitment is called Music for the soul (Música para el Alma), or we might even call it Musicaltruism, that is, giving the soul a pair of wings to free the heart from anguish of both body and mind, and forget, at least for a while, all the suffering and pain that prevent us from flying high in search of smiles!

Sergio Valentino, MPA Naples, Italy

[quote cite=”Laura Rizzo, soprano from Music for the Soul – Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Braulio A. Moyano, CABA, March 2013″]…

…the lady was dancing during our concert. She got sad when she heard the music from “Schindler´s List” and went to the ladies´ to cry. She went in, looked at herself in the mirror, and said “I look ugly!”, and kept on crying sorrowfully poor little thing. Then she started dancing again, and when Fermín (Prieto, a tenor) sang “O sole mio”, she was overwhelmed and fell to the floor almost like fainting.  Later, and sobbing, she told me “I don´t know what to do with so much happiness”. She did not faint, actually, she simply let herself fall to the floor….. overjoyed. Laura Rizzo, a soprano in MPA – Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, City of Buenos, March 2013.

At the Moyano Hospital they told us the lady´s name is María Flora, 70 years old, and always goes to the radio program (Desate, broadcast by the patients at the Moyano Hospital) to sing and read her poems…. Sometimes, insanity devastates her thoughts, her feelings, her desires…. Sometimes, poetry is not enough …. (Video showing María Flora dancing).

Video of María Flora dancing: