Jiaqi Wang (BM 1st year)
ESL IV Essay 1 Final Paper
Professor：Ben Martin-Bean
Due date: 02/14/2019
The energy of love
As a professional composer and pianist, in my life, I experience lots of music performances, and I enjoyed a lot happiness and achievements. However, in my 15-year music career, I never think why the music is significant for me, and why music has energy, and why people need music. These questions made me feel confused until last year, December.
In 2017 December 11th, I was doing my high school winter concert in New Jersey Englewood Hospital & Medical Center. When I arrived the lobby of the hospital, I heard four musicians are playing piece to patients. After I heard 20 minutes, my heart felt very warm, but I didn't know why I just wanted to cry. Progressively, after they played 40 minutes, I felt that music have energy but I can't tell why. After they finished, I just asked them a few questions. They told me "We're doing the music therapy, and you should play for patients, then you will know ! '' Due to my desire curiosity, last year, when I attended NEC, I enrolled the "Performing musicians and Community health" class.
In the first day of class, I just asked my teacher Dr. Maggi some very amateurish questions. I remember I asked her :“If I don't study music therapy, could I regularly play the music for patients?”She asked me:“you could, but you'll not be appropriate and occupational music therapist.'' After the first class, she gave our class a article that named "The Myth of Diminished Capacity". After I read this passage, I concluded that most of patients' bodies don't work as well as a healthy person. However, their ideologies are not degenerate. They desire that people can care them. After I read this article, I basically understood that what are the patients need.
In the beginning of the third class, Dr. Maggi announced a very exciting news that our class will publicly perform in society. My partner Jing and me was assigned to Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In that moment, I was very excited, and I also thought it's very hard to control this performance, because I only studied a little bit theoretical knowledge. On the contrary, I also had a little bit fear, because I will face patients and play in very a serious circumstance. Whether what my mood was going on, my partner and me began to work on this program.
The first step is the repertoire selection. I thought this process is a piece of cake. My other violist and me efficiently chose pieces that we both convinced, and we made a very long list. Unfortunately, Dr. Maggi disapproved our repertoire selections and all plans. In the moment, I felt very shocked and frustrated. I modestly and carefully send an email to her, she replied to me, she said" the music therapy is totally different performance that your regular performance, and when you play to patients , you need be satisfied with their needs instead of thinking wha...
