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Music-in-Medicine & Concerts in the Park

The Music-in-Medicine Initiative harnesses music to improve the health and wellness of patients, caregivers and health care providers at MD Anderson and beyond.

The initiative hosts a concert series featuring world-class performances by artistic partners from around the globe. Patients, providers, caregivers, families, volunteers and visitors are invited to attend. Many of these concerts feature live data capturing to assess the neurophysiological impact of immersive live concerts on brain dynamics, stress biomarkers and wellness outcomes in patients, providers and caregivers.

Concerts will be held on the second floor of the Main Building, by the Donor Wall in The Park, thorough October 2024. Due to construction, the concerts will be held on the second floor of the Mays clinic, in the West Lobby, starting in November 2024. View the concert schedule or get directions to concerts location.

"Rhapsody in Blue"

Mei Rui, DMA, performs Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with live EEG data collection during the Music-in-Medicine inaugural Concert in The Park.

Upcoming concerts

Robin Scott, Violin | Richard Belcher, Cello | Mei Rui, Piano

Music can heal the wounds that medicine cannot touch. –Debasish Mridha, MD.

This concert program features Grammy-winning violinist Robin Scott, Grammy-nominated cellist Richard Belcher, and internationally award-winning pianist Dr. Mei Rui in two soul-nourishing works: The “Dumky” Piano Trio by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, and the Cello Sonata by English composer Frank Bridge. This concert is an art-science collaboration with the IUCRC BRAIN Center led by Cullen Distinguished Professor Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, FIEEE, FAIMBE and his team of neuroengineering graduate students, including Annel Pacheco Ramirez, Aime Aguilar Herrera, Yoshua Lima Carmona and Lianne Sanchez Rodriguez.

Grammy-nominated New Zealand cellist Richard Belcher is the founding cellist of the Enso String Quartet, and a cellist with Saint Pauls Chamber Orchestra. With the quartet he earned highly critical accolades from recording and concertizing in many of the world’s major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Kennedy Center in the United States, as well as abroad in Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand. He is also Artistic Director of Music on the Hill, and Principal Cellist of Houston Chamber Orchestra. He has taught and performed at many festivals including St. Bart’s, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Prussia Cove, Madeline Island, Campos do Jordao International Winter Festival, SummerFest La Jolla, and the San Miguel de Allende International Chamber Music Festival. In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, Richard has previously served as Faculty at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and has given numerous masterclasses around the world. He plays an N.F. Vuillaume cello made in 1856.

Robin Scott, is one of America’s rising stars on the classical music stage, has built a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. He has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Montgomery Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille in France, and many others. He has won top prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and the Stulberg International String Competition. Scott is the 1^st violinist of the Grammy-winning Ying Quartet. As an avid and passionate chamber musician, Scott has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library, Town Hall in New York City, and other venues. His festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists, Yellow Barn, and Kneisel Hall. He has participated in the acclaimed Music From Marlboro tours, as well as tours under the auspices of the Ravinia Festival, and was a member of the Gesualdo String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame. Scott has served as concertmaster of the New York Classical Players.

Dr. Mei Rui is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and the founder and Director Music-in-Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. A Yale-trained molecular biochemist and internationally acclaimed concert pianist, Dr. Rui is a pioneer in Music Medicine. Other academic appointments include Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Sophie Davis Biomedical School at the City University of New York, at Yale University, and Yale School of Music. Dr. Rui was previously Assistant Professor of Music Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and in the Department of Surgery at Houston Methodist. She founded the MUSICARE Initiative, which brought over 400 live bedside concerts performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and eminent musicians from the Houston Symphony to ICU patients, their families and providers. Dr. Rui spearheads innovative clinical trials assessing the neurophysiological mechanisms and impact of music intervention and live concerts in clinical cohorts. Her research uses evidence-based repertoire-selection methodologies to mitigate intra- and peri-operative stress, alleviate pain, reduce anxiety, diminish sedative and analgesic needs, and improve sleep in cancer patients. Her investigations also harness music—a powerful modulator of the human stress response—to mitigate burnout and enhance empathy in healthcare providers. Medalist in the 2015 World Piano Competition, Dr. Rui’s performances have been praised by the Boston Globe, Boston Musical Intelligencer, and New York Classical Review. She has performed at prestigious concert venues worldwide, including a season-opening recital at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris and the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. She has collaborated with world-renowned artists including Emanuel Ax, Robert Trevino, Roger Tapping, and Itzhak Perlman.

Robert McDonald, Piano

Chair of the piano department at the Curtis Institute and one of the most sought-after pianist and pedagogues in the world, McDonald has been on the faculty at the Juilliard School since 1999, and at Curtis Institute of Music since 2007. He tours extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. He has appeared with major orchestras in the United States and was the recital partner for many years to Isaac Stern and other distinguished instrumentalists. He has played with the Takács, Vermeer, Juilliard, Brentano, Borromeo, American, Shanghai, and St. Lawrence string quartets, as well as Music from Marlboro. His discography includes recordings for Sony Classical, Bridge, Vox, Musical Heritage Society, ASV, and CRI. McDonald’s prizes include the gold medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition, the top prize at the William Kapell International Competition, and the Deutsche Schallplatten Critics Award. With degrees from Lawrence University, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music, he studied with Theodore Rehl, Seymour Lipkin, Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman.

Houston Grand Opera

A special Valentine’s concert featuring acclaimed artists from the Houston Grand Opera.

Yoonshin Song, Violin | Mei Rui, Piano

Yoonshin was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that she has held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. Yoonshin has also served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.

Aletheia Trio: Fei-Fei, piano | Francesca dePasquale, violin | Juliette Herlin, cello

The Aletheia Trio was formed in 2013 at the Juilliard School and quickly gave debut performances at the Rose Studio and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York and the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Highlights of recent performances include debut appearances for the Dame Myra Hess Series (Chicago, IL), Shenson Chamber Music Concerts (Washington, D.C.), PLAY the Classics at Bethel Woods (Bethel, NY), Friends of Chamber Music (Reading, PA), Macon Concert Association at Wesleyan College (Macon, GA), Concerts in the Barn (Quilcene, WA), Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach (Palm Beach, FL), Saint Vincent College Concert Series (Latrobe, PA), Shandelee Music Festival (Livingston Manor, NY), and the Busan Maru International Music Festival (Busan, Korea), which included Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Gustav Mahler Orchestra. The ensemble is named for Aletheia, the Greek concept of sincerity, which celebrates their approach to realizing musical works, as well as their connection to each other and their audiences.

Richie Hawley, Clarinet; Juliette Herlin, cello; Mei Rui, Piano

Friday | May 2, 2025 | 12 p.m. | Zayad Building, second floor
Thursday | May 8, 2025 | 12 p.m. | Mays Clinic, second rloor, West Lobby

Romantic Impressionism—Ravel and Faure Quartets Featuring Da Camera Artists

A special concert highlighting Brain Cancer Awareness, featuring acclaimed artists from the Da Camera and Dr. Mei Rui, Piano

Past concerts

Friday | October 20, 2023 | 12 p.m.

Da Camera Artist: A Piano Recital

Works by Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven and J.S. Bach.

Featuring Jonathan Mack, piano.

Friday | October 20, 2023 | 12 p.m.

Shepherd School of Music: Brahms Trio

Featuring Sophia Mathews, Violin; Emma Potter, Horn, and Mei Rui, piano.

Thursday | November 2, 2023 | 5 p.m.

100 Years of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”

Featuring the TMC Orchestra, MD Anderson Neurosurgery faculty and internationally award-winning concert pianist Mei Rui, DMA, soloist. Welcome remarks by Frederick Lang, M.D., chair of Neurosurgery, and live aesthetic brain-computer interface projection based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) by University of Houston’s neuroengineering team led by Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, Ph.D.

Friday | December 1, 2023 | 12 p.m.

Immortal Beloved

Piano works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Featuring Mei Rui, DMA, piano.

Wednesday | January 31, 2024 | 12 p.m.

The Mozart Effect

Come experience the rejuvenating and uplifting power of chamber music, performed by award-winning Da Camera violinists Astrid Nakamura and Yu-Ming Ma, violist Weilan Li, and cellist Kristiana Ignatjeva; joined by Neurosurgery faculty and concert pianist Dr. Mei Rui. Chamber works by Mozart, Bologne, and Schubert.

Wednesday | February 14, 2024 | 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Be My Valentine

Ravishingly romantic chamber works by Antonín Dvořák, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Featuring New Zealand cellist Richard Belcher, violinist Eva Burmeister, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director Alecia Lawyer and pianist Mei Rui.

Wednesday | March 20, 2024 | 12 p.m.

The Magnificent and the Sensuous

Beethoven “Archduke” Trio, Op. 97 | Ravel Piano Trio, M. 67

Featuring internationally acclaimed concert artists Jaewon Wee, Violin | Desmond Hoebig, Cello | Mei Rui, Piano

Reception to Follow

Thursday | March 21, 2024 | 5 p.m.

The Art of Musical Healing: A Piano Recital

Emanuel Ax, Piano

Reception to Follow

Wednesday | April 3, 2024 | 12 p.m.

Trio Menil

Mendelssohn Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 66; and Beethoven Piano Trio in Eb Major, Op. No.1.

Featuring the award-winning Trio Menil, Grand Prize and Odyssey Chamber Music Series Award winner at the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition. Jonathan Mak, Piano; Jeongwon Claire An, Violin; David Dietz, Cello

Tuesday | April 30, 2024 | 12 p.m.

Love, Brahms

Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, Op. 99 | Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Minor, L. 108 | Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 101

Relish the exquisite beauty, passion, and ecstasy in this all-Brahms program featuring internationally renowned artists Jaewon Wee, Richard Belcher, and Mei Rui.

Reception to Follow

Thursday | May 23, 2024 | 12 p.m.

The Art of Virtuosity

Featuring internationally renowned pianist Stephen Beus, DMA, first prize winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the Vendome Prize International Competition in Lisbon, and recipient of the the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association. He is an Associate Professor at BYU School of Music, and has performed to critical acclaim around the globe. Works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Medtner, and Liszt, with a special duet performance with Mei Rui, DMA.

Christoph Wagner, Cello

Dr. Christoph Wagner is an internationally acclaimed cellist whose mission is to transform the world through music. He has performed in major concert halls in Europe such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam under renowned conductors including Jonathan Nott, Lothar Zagrosek and Stefan Asbury, and appeared at festivals throughout Europe and the US. His international career has spanned four continents, including appearances in Switzerland, Croatia, France, Italy, South Africa, South America, China, South Korea and the US. He received first prizes at Jugend Musiziert, Ribalta Mozart Italia in Italy, and the Peter Pirazzi Competition in Germany. Prize-winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters competition in Bloomington, Indiana, he holds scholarships from the Richard Wagner Verband in Frankfurt, the Lions Club in Karlsruhe, and the Theodor Rogler Foundation for Young Musicians. In 2018, he received the Sviatoslav Richter Grant from Rice University, followed by the Amici di Via Gabina Fellowship in 2019 for research and performances in Italy. Wagner has been a passionate music ambassador as fellowship holder from Live Music Now – Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Germany.

Leonardo Soto, Percussion | Matthew Roitstein, Flute

A Latin Flair—Dance with Me

Featuring Houston Symphony principal percussionist Leonardo Soto and St. Louis Symphony and Houston Symphony principal flutist Matthew Roitstein. Soto has also served as Principal Timpanist of the Charlotte Symphony from 2009 to 2018, and the Michigan Opera Theatre-Detroit Opera House from 2003 to 2009. He has taught master classes including University of North Carolina, Eastern Michigan University, Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, University of Georgia, Rice University, University of Houston, Universidad de Antioquia de Colombia and schools throughout South America. He began his musical education at the University of Chile and was the recipient of the Teatro Municipal of Santiago National Scholarship. Concurrently, he was trained as a Latin percussionist by his father, Mr. Leonardo Soto, Sr., one of Chile’s most prominent musicians in the field. Leo embarked on his professional career with the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, where he gained experience in orchestral, opera and ballet repertoire.

Originally from Valencia, California, flutist Matthew Roitstein is the Principal Flutist of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He comes to St. Louis after eight years with the Houston Symphony, with whom he has toured through Europe and South America. Previously a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Roitstein has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Dallas, Detroit, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Music festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Britt Festival Orchestra, Arizona Musicfest, Aspen, and Sarasota Music Festivals. Roitstein can be heard on recordings with the Houston Symphony and New World Symphony, as well as on Gloria Estefan’s 2013 album, The Standards.

Robin Scott, Violin | Ahrim Kim, Cello | Mei Rui, Piano

Exuberant Romanticism: Schubert Piano Trio in B♭ Major

Featuring Grammy award-winning Ying Quartet 1st violinist Robin Scott and Rochester Philharmonic Principal Cellist Ahrim Kim, a husband-wife duo. Scott has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and a top prize winner at Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Klein International String Competition, and the Stulberg International String Competition. Kim was awarded the Cassado Prize and top prizes in Houston Symphony’s Ima Hogg Young Artists Competition, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition and Corpus Christi International Competition. She has performed in Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

Monday | October 14, 2024 | 12 p.m. | The Park (Main Building, second floor)

Monarch Chamber Players

Music-in-Medicine at MD Anderson presents the Monarch Chamber Players, who will showcase a unique program inspired by the stories and experiences of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients both past and present. As the disease is complex and individual in nature, each patient’s story is entirely unique, perhaps the only constant being inconsistency itself.

This program offers a small glimpse into the world of an MBC patient with a new commission by Houston-based composer, Nicky Sohn, as well as works by other living composers, including Alice Hong, Jennifer Higdon, and Kenji Bunch. The music presents a variety of colors with themes of solace in nature, life’s complexity, and the necessity of community.

Yaron Kohlberg and Mei Rui, Pianos

Two Brains, Four Hands—The Art of Piano Duos

Winner of 10 international prizes and the 2007 silver medalist of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Kohlberg is President of Piano Cleveland. NPR raved, “When the music ends, if you’re not deeply moved by the depth of Kohlberg’s insight, you might want to check your pulse.” Yaron Kohlberg ignites audiences through traditional and nontraditional performances, making him a leader and innovator in the world of classical music. While those crowds are often found in famous venues (Carnegie Hall, the Kremlin, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Kennedy Center, and Mexico City’s Bellas Artes), Kohlberg reaches beyond the concert-going public to engage new audiences with classical music in atypical places – a street piano in Singapore, a hotel lobby in Marrakech, a community center in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It is in these unexpected performances where he crosses cultural divides and awakens listeners to new experiences. Kohlberg often combines storytelling and transcriptions of popular tunes with traditional classical masterpieces, thrilling audiences and critics with his virtuosity and unique quality of sound. Audience favorites include Carmen, the theme songs from the Pulp Fiction and Mission Impossible soundtracks, “Hava Nagila” and the children’s song “The Most Beautiful Girl in Kindergarten.” Kohlberg also lectures and conducts masterclasses at leading institutions around the world. He speaks six languages, including Mandarin Chinese, has lived on three continents, and traveled to 85 countries. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestras, the Beijing and Chengdu Symphony Orchestras, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the Palermo Teatro Massimo Orchestra in Italy.

Nicholas Tzavaras, Cello | Mei Rui, Piano

Director of Brevard Music Center, cellist Nicholas Tzavaras has toured the globe as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator for more than two decades. He has performed more than 1600 concerts worldwide, from Cartagena Columbia to the Tonhalle in Zurich to Nagasaki Japan. Since 2000, Tzavaras has been the cellist of the internationally renowned Shanghai Quartet. Recent festival engagements have included the Brevard, La Jolla and Taos festivals, the Casals festival in Prades France, the Melbourne Music Festival in Australia and the Marlboro Festival. Tzavaras has held the esteemed title of guest principal cellist of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra since 2009. He has recorded more than 25 albums for the Naxos, Delos, Bis, Centaur, Camerata, and New Albion labels, including the complete Beethoven string quartet cycle and Bright Sheng’s songs for pipa and cello with Wu Man. Tzavaras can be seen in the Academy Award nominated documentary “Small Wonders,” the motion picture “Music of the Heart” and with the Shanghai Quartet in “Melinda Melinda.”

About the Music-in-Medicine initiative

Music is a safe, low-cost and effective way to improve wellness. Listening to relaxing classical music for just 30 minutes can significantly reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and the levels of stress hormones and inflammatory molecules detected in the blood. The right kind of music played in the operating room can enhance surgeon performance and improve patient outcomes.

The Music-in-Medicine Initiative harnesses music to improve the health and wellness of patients, caregivers and health care providers at MD Anderson and beyond. The initiative's specific goals include:

Reducing stress and anxiety before during, and after surgery
Alleviating pain, confusion, fatigue and fear during awake procedures
Enhancing the performance of providers in the operating room, including the surgeon
Improving sleep and promoting recovery after surgery
Mitigating burnout and enhancing wellness in providers
Optimizing the acoustic environment of care for patients, providers and caregivers.

The initiative conducts these efforts through multiple programs, including:

Innovative clinical trials exploring the applications and benefits of music in cancer patients, caregivers and providers. Learn about our current clinical trial for neurosurgery patients.
Concerts in The Park, a monthly live performance series featuring world-class performing artists from around the globe, showcasing a state-of-the art Steinway Spirio D model concert grand piano.
Musicare, a one-on-one bedside concert series for patients and providers.
Pop-up concerts throughout MD Anderson, such as on the skybridge and within surgical waiting areas.

Contact us

Mei Rui, DMA, Assistant Professor
Neurosurgery department
Director, Music-in-Medicine Initiative
mrui@mdanderson.org

Eddie Gonzalez
Senior Administrative Assistant
832-883-5176
eegonzalez@mdanderson.org

What is music medicine?

You don’t have to be a music lover to benefit from music’s healing impact. Studies have found that just 30 minutes of listening to relaxing classical music can decrease levels of stress hormones in the blood.

Science demonstrates the power of music’s healing properties. The field is called music medicine. Music medicine researchers study how certain music-based interventions impact stress, pain, sleep and mood in patients. They also assess how different musical stimuli affect surgeon performance and provider wellness.

We spoke with Mei Rui, DMA, assistant professor of Neurosurgery and director of Music-in-Medicine at MD Anderson, to learn more about the emerging field of music medicine and Concerts in The Park, a new concert series at MD Anderson featuring world-class musicians and ensembles. An award-winning concert pianist, Rui spearheads clinical trials using live music intervention to enhance patient outcomes, wellness and surgeon performance in the operating room.

What is music medicine?

Music is a powerful modulator of the human stress response. Music is safe, cost-effective and non-narcotic. Research suggests classical music reduces stress, pain and anxiety in clinical settings with no known side effects.

Our multidisciplinary study team includes neurosurgeons, oncologists, acute-care providers, ICU nurses, neuropsychologists, anesthesiologists, neuroimaging specialists, data scientists, award-winning composers and world-class musicians. Using state-of-the-art technologies including fMRI, EEG, and proteomic analyses, we analyze cells, blood, brainwaves, vitals and more to measure the impact of music on health outcomes.

Different types of music target different pathways in the brain. Listening to a mix of both familiar and unfamiliar music can help the brain recover from a stroke or surgery by stimulating oxygen and blood flow to critical brain regions.

These benefits extend to health care providers, too. We have found that listening to prescribed music enhances blood flow to brain regions associated with emotional regulation and empathy. Surgeons perform certain tasks even more accurately and efficiently when exposed to classical music.

What types of patients benefit from music medicine?

Music can help everyone! Studies have shown that intubated and even fully sedated patients under general anesthesia respond positively to prescribed music. The patient does not need to be conscious or aware. Simply being in the same room while the music plays lowers levels of stress biomarkers and improves hemodynamic stabilities.

Music can also help healthcare providers who work long shifts and have irregular sleep schedules. Listening to relaxing music can promote sleep mindfulness and potentially reduce risks for burnout.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I founded an initiative at the hospital where I was working to comfort isolated patients and burnt-out providers. I reached out to musical collaborators including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, and musicians from the Houston Symphony and the Juilliard String Quartet. Over 400 live bedside concerts were performed for isolated patients and burnt-out providers.

What is prescribed music?

“Prescribed music” refers to musical compositions that target a patient’s neurophysiological mechanisms and mood states. We define prescribed music based on certain compositional elements of relaxation. Instead of focusing on genre (pop, jazz, rock and roll), prescription music should be selected based on compositional elements like timbre, tempo, instrumentation, dynamic range, accentuation and articulation.

Prescribed music is emotionally nonintrusive. Music that contains the compositional elements of relaxation yields more consistent and effective results regardless of a person’s age, gender, profession, preference, or prior musical training.

Most people prefer certain genres of music, artists or songs. But if patients or providers choose music simply based on what they like, the results can be undesirable. Like any other kind of medicine, music can have side effects. For example, some music can be emotionally triggering, especially vocal music or pieces with overly activating rhythms. Such pieces can be too stimulating for unstable ICU or intraoperative patients, and they can compromise surgeons’ abilities to perform fine motor tasks.

How do you decide what music to prescribe?

It depends on the desired outcome. For example, we might want to promote sleep and stress reduction in ICU or postoperative patients. In that case, we would choose soothing pieces such as a Chopin Nocturne or Schumann’s Traumerei played at a low volume.

We have had success with music that contains a perfect balance of novelty and familiarity. Examples include Bach Goldberg Variations and slow movements of Mozart's piano sonatas. Delicate and beautiful themes reemerge multiple times throughout such pieces, invoking a sense of familiarity. However, these composers weave in subtle variations each time the theme returns, which helps your brain stay entrained and in a meditative state.

Prescription music is not the typical “elevator” music that numbs, bores and makes us tune out. Hearing the same melody on repeat can quickly turn from a pleasant experience to an excruciating one. Instead, prescription music simultaneously enlightens and calms the mind.

How is music medicine being used at MD Anderson?

My goal is to use evidence-based music programming to optimize the acoustic environment of care at MD Anderson. Having performed over 600 concerts for audiences around the world, I am passionate about using music as a universal language to connect with patients, caregivers and providers. We’re holding our inaugural Concert in The Park on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. I will perform George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue” on the piano with the TMC Orchestra.

During the performance, attendees will witness a live experiment with real-time EEG data collection and projection by my collaborator from the University of Houston, Dr. Jose Conteras-Vidal. Neurosurgery chair Frederick Lang, M.D., and I will both wear 32-channel EEG caps. Attendees will be able to visualize how a soloist’s and a non-musician audience member’s brains respond to performing and listening to the dynamic sections in the concerto on large screens.

I am immensely grateful for the donation of a Steinway Spirio D concert grand piano, which has been supporting Concerts in The Park. It also plays pre-recorded, simulated live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day in The Park. We have already held pop-up concerts in The Park, on the Skybridge, and in other high-flow public and waiting areas at MD Anderson. It has been deeply rewarding and meaningful for me to play for patients and staff.

Several free concerts have been scheduled for the fall season and beyond. We are also scheduling more pop-up concerts, so check for updates. I also look forward to bringing live bedside concerts directly into the patient rooms.

See a schedule of upcoming concerts at MD Anderson.