PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Concerts Notes of comfort fill the silence of the Cedars Cancer Center every Tuesday noon. The project was launched in January 2020, put aside during the pandemic, then relaunched on October 26. Visitors and musicians are vaccinated and the mask is of course compulsory. “For the moment, we avoid singers and wind instruments,” says the instigator of the project, Patil Harboyan, lecturer at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. The concerts – free – are intended for employees, visitors and patients already on the premises, as was the case with Mark Godden (our photo), who came to receive treatment that day.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
About ten years ago, while doing her doctorate, Patil Harboyan visited her husband (a MUHC surgeon-oncologist) in a New York hospital. There was a piano. She sat there and played for two hours. “It was a very enriching and very moving experience,” recalls Patil Harboyan. A few years later, she contacted the President and CEO of the Cedars Cancer Foundation to propose the idea, which was retained. Doctors organized a fundraiser to buy the piano and a donor offered to pay the musicians a fee.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Once a month, Patil Harboyan hires professional musicians, as was the case last Tuesday with the duo Cavatine. The rest of the time, the contract is given to music students. The context of proximity to the public implies a different concentration, says Mme Harboyan, who sees it as a great opportunity for the students. “People are moving and talking around us. Some sit for a minute, others stay for the full hour, she said. If we are able to make the suffering, the pain a little more tolerable, this would be a successful program. ”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
From time to time, during the performance of pianist Michel-Alexandre Broekaert and cellist Noémie Raymond-Friset, staff moved patients lying on stretchers. A lady who accompanied one of them turned to the musicians, taking advantage of these few seconds of peace before rushing into the corridor. “There are radiation oncology patients who come every day for three, five, seven weeks,” says Dr.r Tarek Hijal, Chief of Radiation Oncology at the MUHC. We want something that feels good, that boosts morale, that soothes. ”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Gérald Bouchard listened attentively to the music while waiting for the end of his wife’s chemotherapy treatment, upstairs. “It brings me peace,” he says. He has been attending the Cedars Cancer Center for two years and it is the first time that he has heard the piano resonate within its walls. Will he come back? “I wish I could, but this is his last chemotherapy,” he said with a smile in his eyes.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Chantal Leblanc, social worker in oncology, was at the concert from start to finish, leaning against the wall, also attentive. “During the pandemic, this piano was covered, underlines Mme Leblanc who normally sings in the MUHC choir. For me, taking this cover off and resuming activities like this is magic. ”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The President and CEO of the MUHC, Dr Pierre Gfeller (center), also came to take his turn. A close colleague who passed by at noon told her that the music was exceptional. “I am a big music lover. Besides, my oldest son is an opera singer, ”he says proudly. He also wanted to demonstrate, by his presence, his support for the initiative. “I find it great that we can bring the arts into a care environment. “