This therapy is like music to their ears

Joan's first musical composition debuted Saturday in the auditorium of Tewksbury Hospital.

The blind 53-year-old, who has lived at the state hospital for 12 years, said a "very good worker" named Tod Machover helped her to create the computer-generated melody and harmony. The piece was played by the Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra to an audience of hospital patients, health care professionals, educators, and the arts and cultural community.

Joannie, as she is known by hospital staffers, is one of 16 hospital patients who composed music using technology that was developed by a team at the MIT Media Lab, including Machover, an inventor, musician, and professor of MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences. The last names of patients were not released by the hospital because of the patients' privacy rights.

"I think music can change so many people's lives," said Machover on Friday just after a rehearsal performance of the patients' works. "Music is something that doesn't exceed what your body can do. There aren't too many activities that different generations and skill [levels] can do together."

Through a series of connections that included a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, Machover brought MIT students from Cambridge to Tewksbury to work with the patients. Two interns from the Berklee College of Music with backgrounds in music therapy and expressive therapy also assisted. Weeks of work resulted in a self-esteem-building performance for people who usually live in society's shadows, said hospital representatives.

Joannie is not a musician, but by using the Hyperscore software, she was able to compose music intuitively. With the help of Machover and interns at the hospital, she activated icons on a computer screen which corresponded to notes and sounds. Listening to her score as she worked, she refined the notes, the tempo, beat, harmonies, and melodies until her piece was complete. The software produced a score for the music that was used by the orchestra.

For the Saturday performance, Machover projected an animated rendering of shapes and lines that represented the composition onto a screen.

Hyperscore has been used by children in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America, but the Tewksbury Hospital project is the first major use of the software by adults.

Joannie's piece was called "Dancing in the Storm, Hurry Home." Another composition played by the orchestra Saturday was "Our Musically" by Dan. After the performances, all 16 patients who participated in the 10-week pilot program were each awarded a bouquet of flowers by hospital officials.

Patricia Pedreira, cofounder of the Vermont Arts Exchange in Bennington, who was hired by the hospital a year ago to bring the arts to patients as a form of therapy, said she was excited about the effect that the music composition program has had on patients. She said that both physically disabled and mentally disabled patients took part in the program.

"One of the surprises for me to see was that the whole process of making music has strengthened the community of patients," said Pedreira.

Pedreira said that future programs may incorporate dance or movement and healing, noting that many patients are wheelchair users, and the once-a-week effort was an enormous effort.

"These kinds of projects break down a lot of stigma and help build a strong and positive sense of community," said Pedreira.

The performance on Saturday celebrated the 150th birthday of the state hospital -- a 540-bed facility opened in 1854 to house mostly poor immigrants. Among its most famous patients was Helen Keller's teacher and companion, Anne Sullivan, who lived there from 1876 to 1880 before leaving for the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown.

The MIT project at the hospital began in March with a $3,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a nonprofit organization funded by the state Legislature to promote education and access to the arts. The money allowed the program coordinators to pay the students a small stipend each, said Mary Kelley, executive director of the council.

"We really are hoping to continue the work," she said, noting that funding cutbacks over the previous fiscal years forced the termination of broader programs. "We will continue the work somehow or other."

Kelley said she has witnessed and heard of dramatic changes in patients who experience arts healing programs.

That sentiment was echoed by Dr. Mark Jude Tramo, Massachusetts General Hospital assistant attending neurologist and the director for the Boston-based Institute of Music & Brain Science. Tramo was not affiliated with the Tewksbury Hospital effort but is familiar with Machover's work.

"Engaging psychiatric patients in the creative arts is a promising way of helping those patients express and externalize their emotions," Tramo said. "These are individuals who existentially, minute by minute, are consumed by their emotional lives. . . One way to help them cope with their emotions is to give them an outlet."

On Friday, as they looked forward to the next day's performance, some patients answered reporters' questions and allowed photographers to take their pictures. Dan, 30, who has lived at the hospital since he was 22, provided a prepared computer-generated speech.

"I have cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy means I cannot speak, walk, or control my arms," he said, communicating through the use of a computer monitor affixed to his wheelchair table and a light-driven computer mouse secured by a headband to his forehead. "In the future, I would like to start working in the community. I also would like to speak publicly."

Machover, who has worked with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and rock singer Prince, among other well-known musicians, said he uses the technology to augment people's abilities.

"Creative activities are really valuable things and given the opportunity, everybody has something to say," Machover said.

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.