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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
MEDIA CONTACT
Carrie Marrett
Director of Marketing
Office: 812.425.5050
EVANSVILLE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
COLLABORATES WITH DEACONESS AND ST. MARY'S HEALTH SYSTEMS
TO LAUNCH NEW PROGRAM TO ENHANCE HEALING
Evansville, Indiana - The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Deaconess and St. Mary's Health Systems is proud to announce the "Music for Healing Project". This project began when Sam Rogers, manager of public relations for Deaconess Health System, contacted the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra with an idea to promote healing.
"One of our patient satisfaction teams thought it would be great to include classical music whenever possible in the healing process," says Rogers, "instead of relying on patients to bring in their own music or checking out music from our library that may or may not be conducive to healing." So Rogers approached the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra - asking if they had any CDs available. Having none available for this purpose, the Philharmonic took on the challenge of producing a CD specifically designed to promote relaxation and healing. This project is a perfect fit with the Philharmonic's core mission - which is to engage the community in the power of symphonic music. Thus, the "Music for Healing Project" became reality.
Glenn Roberts, executive director of the Philharmonic states, "the task turned out to be fairly simple and straightforward once we got into it." Roberts adds, "Our goal was to select pieces which - from beginning to end - have a calm, soothing mood about them, with lots of warm string passages. No jarring rhythms, dissonant harmonies, or sudden cymbal crashes here. We also wanted to feature music which might be familiar to many folks." As a result, the "Music for Healing Project" CD features the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the first two movements of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, as well as the Philharmonic's concertmaster Gared Crawford playing solo violin in Dvorak's Romance. These performances by the Philharmonic were conducted by Maestro Alfred Savia in the Victory Theatre.
The CDs will be distributed as a free service in patient rooms at both Deaconess and St. Mary's Health Systems. Both hospitals agree patients will reap many benefits from this local project. St. Mary's representative Vickie Detroy, RN MSN Director of Planetree Services states, "Music is very healing for many of our patients. There is a great deal of research that supports music's healing powers and we have had firsthand experience here at St. Mary's for several years. I believe that this particular CD will showcase our local musical talent and for many patients, it may be their first exposure to the Evansville Philharmonic," says Detroy. Rogers adds, "We hope it will aide the healing process, bring joy to the patients and connect the patients with a valuable community resource - the Philharmonic."
Representatives of both Deaconess and St. Mary's believe this partnership with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra culminates in a project truly focused on healing. "In the creation of the CD, the Evansville Philharmonic's selection of music was very deliberate in the desire to provide soothing music that is appropriate for our patient population" says Detroy. This careful selection has resulted in a CD specifically designed to promote relaxation and healing. Roberts adds, "It is our hope that the music on this CD serves as a source of joy, solace, and inspiration when patients may need it most."
About the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra:
The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, a non-profit organization, is the largest arts institution in the Tri-State area. Throughout its 77 year history, the Philharmonic has been committed to providing high-quality music education, outreach and entertainment programs for the entire Tri-State. It is dedicated to sharing the powerful experience of live symphonic music with everyone, from pre-schoolers to the elderly.
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