Sounds of Hope

On a brisk, sunny day in February, a group of students from the Lamont School of Music hauled their musical instruments into the bustling atrium of the Children’s Hospital of Colorado.

The musicians were surrounded by the buzz of activity that is the lobby of any hospital; doctors hustled through the large room, their white coats flapping, and nurses in colorful scrubs stopped to check their pagers before continuing to their destinations, their sneakers squeaking against the floor.

But this isn’t like other hospitals. In this lobby are also parents and families visiting children, many of whom are suffering from serious illnesses.

The student musicians—a jazz quartet—set up their instruments: an upright bass, a keyboard, a saxophone and a drum set. Adon Biggs, Bohden Kinhal, Dave Auerbach and Joseph Hodges began to play, their music reverberating through the atrium. It was also streamed into the rooms of young patients throughout the hospital.

For the most part, people in the lobby were on the move, passers-by who had places to be.

“They would stop in for maybe half a song; a couple people hung for a couple of songs,” says Gabriel Mervine, an adjunct jazz professor at Lamont and the leader of the group. He accompanied the student musicians on trumpet. “But in the atrium, you're exposed to multiple levels. As I was playing, I would look up and think, ‘Oh, there are people on the second floor, leaning over the railing listening up there and people on the third and fourth floor.’”

There was even some participation from the audience—someone requested a Miles Davis song.

The partnership between Lamont and Children’s Colorado serves a dual purpose: Students get to practice playing in a public, professional setting, and the kids who are confined to their rooms—and their families—get to enjoy the live music.

“The performances from the Lamont School of Music students first started as a wonderful holiday treat for patients, families and team members. I am excited the performances will now be happening monthly,” says Jasmine Chu, arts coordinator for the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children’s Colorado. “It’s been a joy to see everyone enjoy the benefits of music as these students share their talents with kids and adults alike.”

For students, the gig is a perfect opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a professional musician—especially because performances can sometimes be last-minute. Due to another group dropping out unexpectedly, Mervine’s students had one day to prepare for their performance.

“We didn't have time to rehearse or anything like that. We just found common songs that we all knew and could play together, which is also something that happens all the time in the professional world,” he says.

Mervine says the Children’s partnership helped him and his students remember what playing music is all about.

“We can get obsessive over our own analysis or the professional world and sometimes fail to remember that music serves so many purposes, like helping people in need,” he says. “We get to share what we've studied for years with somebody who just enjoys the sound of what they’re hearing and doesn't have that whole analytical perspective that we sometimes get so absorbed in, being in the music world.”