Discipline:
Music/arts organization
Organization/Affiliation (no abbreviation):
Hear Your Song, Inc.
Location:
New York, NY 10022
United StatesEmail:
Short biography and a description of your interest(s) in music and health:
I am the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Hear Your Song, a national 501(c)(3) organization that empowers children and teens with serious illnesses and complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. I launched Hear Your Song as an undergraduate organization in 2014 and then led the organization's national and virtual expansion in 2020 in response to the pandemic. Since then, Hear Your Song has helped over 200 kids ages 6-18 in 27 states write their own songs with the support of hundreds of volunteer musicians around the world. We partner with children's hospitals, diagnosis-specific nonprofits, and camp/school programs. My own background is as a composer (mainly of musical theater and opera) and pianist/singer and as an elementary school educator.
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Hear Your Song provides power and choice — and a microphone — to young people with serious illnesses who are so often deprived of both power and choice in living their day-to-day life and in managing their health care journeys. Hear Your Song gives kids who are often cast to the margins the chance to define themselves beyond their diagnoses, embraced and validated and empowered by a community that responds with caring collaborative creativity to help each kid tell their stories. Our kids write songs about everything from loving pasta to living with epilepsy.
We strive to center and celebrate the humanity of every child and teen experiencing a serious illness, whether that affects their physical or mental health. In the wake of the pandemic, we recognize that the youth mental health crisis requires kids and teens to have creative outlets to express themselves and to share the parts of their lives, identities, and imaginations that are most meaningful to them.
As part of this work, we most significantly recognize too that kids of color, especially those with traditionally underdiagnosed and undertreated conditions like sickle cell anemia, are especially in need of platforms to tell their stories. We are committed to partnering with organizations that serve youth with chronic illnesses that disproportionately affect youth of color, recognizing that the trauma of illness is often compounded by the racial trauma experienced in the healthcare system.
Hear Your Song is all about each individual kid's songwriting process, one that emphasizes collaboration and community and that empowers our songwriters to see themselves as accomplished artists. The only formula that Hear Your Song follows is that there is no formula: some kids want to meet three times to work on a song, some kids want to sing on their own songs, some kids want a harpischord and a ukelele to bring their heavy metal anthem to life. We follow kids' imaginations and musical ideas wherever they take us. Our kids may find Hear Your Song because of their diagnoses, but we strive to celebrate them for their creativity, their sense of humor, and the power of their voices. What defines and distinguishes Hear Your Song is our flexibility, our responsiveness to who kids are, and our commitment to listening to every child's unique voice.
***
Hear Your Song provides power and choice — and a microphone — to young people with serious illnesses who are so often deprived of both power and choice in living their day-to-day life and in managing their health care journeys. Hear Your Song gives kids who are often cast to the margins the chance to define themselves beyond their diagnoses, embraced and validated and empowered by a community that responds with caring collaborative creativity to help each kid tell their stories. Our kids write songs about everything from loving pasta to living with epilepsy.
We strive to center and celebrate the humanity of every child and teen experiencing a serious illness, whether that affects their physical or mental health. In the wake of the pandemic, we recognize that the youth mental health crisis requires kids and teens to have creative outlets to express themselves and to share the parts of their lives, identities, and imaginations that are most meaningful to them.
As part of this work, we most significantly recognize too that kids of color, especially those with traditionally underdiagnosed and undertreated conditions like sickle cell anemia, are especially in need of platforms to tell their stories. We are committed to partnering with organizations that serve youth with chronic illnesses that disproportionately affect youth of color, recognizing that the trauma of illness is often compounded by the racial trauma experienced in the healthcare system.
Hear Your Song is all about each individual kid's songwriting process, one that emphasizes collaboration and community and that empowers our songwriters to see themselves as accomplished artists. The only formula that Hear Your Song follows is that there is no formula: some kids want to meet three times to work on a song, some kids want to sing on their own songs, some kids want a harpischord and a ukelele to bring their heavy metal anthem to life. We follow kids' imaginations and musical ideas wherever they take us. Our kids may find Hear Your Song because of their diagnoses, but we strive to celebrate them for their creativity, their sense of humor, and the power of their voices. What defines and distinguishes Hear Your Song is our flexibility, our responsiveness to who kids are, and our commitment to listening to every child's unique voice.
Collaboration Interests:
We are always looking for individuals and organizations to partner with who can help us reach more kids and families and bring our programming to new communities. We are especially eager to collaborate with, and learn from, folks who are focused on trauma-informed care in their own practice since that is a significant and growing element of our work.
We are very conscious about acknowledging the ways that Hear Your Song differs from, and complements, music therapy in and out of clinical settings and excited about the possibilities for collaboration with music therapists throughout our programming. Since much of our programming continues to be virtual, we hope to work with more children and teens who are referred by music therapists with whom they have developed strong relationships. Through our campus-based chapters around the country, we also hope to partner with music therapists through in-person and virtual hospital partnerships.
We'd also be thrilled to connect with researchers who would be interesting in learning more about our work and exploring opportunities for partnering on projects.
We are very conscious about acknowledging the ways that Hear Your Song differs from, and complements, music therapy in and out of clinical settings and excited about the possibilities for collaboration with music therapists throughout our programming. Since much of our programming continues to be virtual, we hope to work with more children and teens who are referred by music therapists with whom they have developed strong relationships. Through our campus-based chapters around the country, we also hope to partner with music therapists through in-person and virtual hospital partnerships.
We'd also be thrilled to connect with researchers who would be interesting in learning more about our work and exploring opportunities for partnering on projects.
Keywords:
songwriting, music, empowerment, research