TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — You don't go to the hospital for live music or art.
But the Tucson Medical Center's Healing Art program has made big changes since 2014.
Including now bringing live music to the halls of their hospitals.
It started completely as art, and then there were two musicians who were playing here very sporadically, because they'd been hired by different individuals to play in like, a specific unit," says Lauren Rabb, "And I heard about that, and that's when I started doing the research and discovered that we should have a music program, because the live music is really, really impactful."
Katie Baird was a student at the University of Arizona at that time. She was motivated to make a difference.
"It's an honor to be able to support people in some of their lowest moments here at TMC. I was playing in Unit 900 for a patient who just had a stroke, the nurses brought me into her room, and she was unable to speak for about two weeks at that point due to her stroke," says Baird, "And as soon as I started playing music, she started tearing up. Up and she was able to speak in her native language, and immediately that brought the nurses to tears in the room."
The original focus of the program is art, with art pieces lining the halls of many of the TMC campuses across southern Arizona.
"The goal is to create an environment that people just feel it. Not institutional. It's warm, it's welcoming, it's nice," says Rabb.
Rabb also found research about how music promotes healing. Which led to TMC bringing on Baird full time.
Baird is now the special events coordinator at TMC and has been instrumental in the planning of the first annual Healing Harmony concert series.
"I really wanted to bring that impact outside of the hospital walls as well on our TMC campus, and inviting our southern Arizona community to enjoy music benefiting a place of healing," says Baird.
The healing harmony concerts are every Thursday this March from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Tickets are $25 per person and benefit the hospital and their foundations.
The concerts are on TMC's campus and you can learn more and buy tickets here.
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Blake Phillips is a reporter for KGUN 9. Originally from St. Louis, Mo., Blake grew up in Sierra Vista. During his college tenure at the Missouri School of Journalism, Blake worked for the NBC affiliate KOMU-TV in Columbia. He is excited to return to a place he calls home and give back to the community in which he grew up. Share your story ideas and important issues with Blake by emailing blake.phillips@kgun9.com.
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