Music For Life – Community Through Art

As long as there have been humans, there has been art. Art and artistic expression is an integral part of being human and remains an activity meant to be enjoyed by all. Music For Life Creative Arts Therapy ensures that music and art is accessible to all and is a tool used to improve the wellbeing of their participants. 

Jeffrey Friedberg, a Board Certified Music Therapist and a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, opened Music For Life in Nyack over ten years ago in 2013. Since then, the program has grown too large for its homebase and has expanded to offer programming at both the Nyack location as well as in their new space at Antrim Playhouse in Tappan. They also offer in-home, virtual and off-site programming. 

Music For Life employs trained music therapists who utilize art as a tool for mental and emotional healing.  The participants at Music For Life include individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, developmental delays and disabilities, Alzheimer’s and dementia, and individuals managing grief, depression and anxiety. 

Autumn Hill, MT-BC, shared that one of her favorite aspects of working with the participants is the joy the participants garner from achieving their goals. She mentioned a particular participant who was able to keep tempo for the first time during a session – a true testament to his hard work and dedication. Friedberg excitedly stated how through this accomplishment alone the participant was able to display how he was “…building motor skills, learning to coordinate his body…building confidence, building focus and attention, and learning what he can do.” These skills found during a time of play and fun bleed into every aspect of participant’s lives, allowing them to grow as both artists and individuals. 

Molly Gorman MT-BC, LCAT, stated that a common misconception surrounding Music Therapy is a lack of education regarding what, exactly, a Music Therapy session looks like. Every participant in Music For Life begins with an assessment period where the individual’s goals are identified. The lessons are then tailored to these musical or nonmusical goals. Gorman shared some examples of these personalized sessions, such as passing a drum back and forth to build sharing skills, working on sitting at a piano for two minutes to build concentration, or helping to work through feelings of anxiety by writing song lyrics about those feelings. “It can look so different from client to client. But it’s not just us playing at the client…it’s making music together, and we have a real community music therapy approach where we’re encouraging [that] social connection.”

According to a study published at the National Library of Medicine, “…community belonging and engagement contributes to quality of life which results in a greater sense of identity and confidence”. This sense of community appears to be the ultimate goal for Friedberg and his team of 20 staff members. “What happens in our groups, especially at the musical theater program and the bands, is that they have a real network. They have a connection – a troop. …I noticed [the participants] started introducing themselves, ‘Hi, I’m Joe and I’m a member of this band’. They feel a real sense of identity and meaning and purpose being in those groups.”

Gorman expounded on this theme by touching on the sense of community that the parents are able to experience alongside their children. One mother of a participant spoke of her desire to have her son engaged in productive and stimulating activities, but that many places fell short of her expectations. She recalled her frustration at not being able to find a place that encouraged her son’s love of music, movement and his social-butterfly nature – that was, however, until she got on the phone with Jeffrey Friedberg. “I say all the time, to all my friend’s, my family, that this is [my son’s] anchor. [Jeffrey] is here for every part of who he is; emotionally, socially, musically – being able to be disciplined and sit in classes where I never thought he would be. This is the place for him, and we feel so accepted and loved here for his strengths and his weaknesses. Nobody is ever hard on him or makes him feel inadequate. They always make him feel like he’s going to try better, and that’s what we need to do for him and for all of our special needs kids”. 

Friedberg shared a past production of Shrek the Musical that encouraged participants to work together as an even larger community. Some individuals worked on singing, dancing and acting, while others interested in working backstage made props or played instruments in the orchestra pit. The TV show class created a commercial to advertise the show, and the video editing class edited the film taken of the show. This project allowed for everyone to be involved in their own creative way and to be a part of that all-important community. Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, states in an article from The Harvard Gazette that “Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism”. The holistic creative thinking from the people at Music For Life is working hard to stave off loneliness for all of its participants, no matter their artistic interest or ability. 

Another way that Music For Life guarantees their services are available to all is by implementing accessibility aids in innovative ways. They start with the basics, and ensure that their spaces are handicap accessible. Inside the classrooms, Friedberg collaborates with his music therapists to execute accessibility protocols for the participants. “There’s many different ways to help people access music. It doesn’t have to be just through the traditional sheet music way”, says Friedberg. For example, the staff will write out music in a non-traditional way to help participants learn how to play, record the staff singing the musical theater songs for auditory learners to listen to at home, put the lyrics up on a large screen, utilize Youtube’s playback speed adjustment tools, and maintain a flexible mindset in the spaces when approaching diverse learning styles.

One recent accommodation was the acquisition of a Chorda device. This instrument is multiuse and can become a guitar, a piano, a set of drums and a synthesizer, and allows for individuals with limited mobility to engage with these instruments that might otherwise be impossible. 

Music For Life encourages anyone to reach out to them through their website musicforlifecenter.com and to stay up to date regarding their public events on their Facebook page. Upcoming events include the Halloween Band Festival at the Nyack Center on October 20th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (costumes encouraged!) and the inaugural concert collaboration with Rockland Pride Center at The Angel Nyack on November 7th at 7:00 p.m.