Students and faculty from Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music are playing live performances in the Upstate Cancer Center atrium as part of a new partnership. Their first performance was last week.

This is not like a traditional performance where people sit and watch, said Martha Sutter, interim director of the Setnor School of Music. Musicians play on the ground floor and the sound travels up through levels of the center so patients and caregivers can listen to music as they’re waiting for or receiving treatment, she said.

The partnership provides a learning opportunity for students, Sutter said.

 

“It benefits the students because it gives them another opportunity to perform live in a nice venue,” she said. “On the more humanitarian side, it gives them an opportunity to give back to the community.”

Students also have to learn which types of programming work within the space and for the audience, Sutter said. They have to be cognizant of the mood and volume of the music and be sensitive to the healing environment, she said.

The partnership began as a collaboration with the Healing Harmonies group of Symphoria, a professional orchestra in Syracuse, said Joshua Dekaney, professor of applied music and performance and director of the Career Development Center at the Setnor School. Healing Harmonies sends professional musicians to play at the center once a week, and they were looking for student volunteers, Dekaney said.

For this reason, students who perform at the center need to be emotionally and musically mature in order to understand the delicate situation and best serve the patients, Dekaney said.

“I watched my father go through cancer treatment and it’s rough; there are really big struggles. I hope music can take their mind off where they are and hopefully offer them a little bit of peace and maybe bring up some happy memories. But hopefully the music is coming from a place of love,” Dekaney said.

The building was physically designed with music in mind, said Matthew Capogreco, program and events coordinator at Upstate Cancer Center.

“When we first built (the Upstate Cancer Center) we went to a lot of different centers of excellence around the country,” he said. “One of the first things we noticed was when you walk into all of those buildings they have music playing.”

The designers chose colors, furniture, patterns and artwork that reflect the theme of healing through nature, Capogreco said. True to this theme, the bright, open construction of the cancer center’s atrium makes it a good space for live music performances, he said.

The center hopes to host live performances at least once a week, but is still in the process of scheduling, Capogreco said. On Nov. 19, Setnor School professors will be playing at the Lung Cancer Vigil and Reception at 5 p.m. in the atrium.

“We’re hoping to use the space beyond just treatment,” Capogreco said. “Our job is to treat the patient holistically, and one of those things sometimes is to distract them from some of the things that are going on around them and lose themselves in some music for a while.”

Published on November 9, 2015 at 10:18 pm

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