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Musicians accepted into the National Repertory Orchestra want to move people with their music, and most aim for positions with symphonies to reach audiences. But Monday, Deforia Lane introduced a new vision to the musicians.
Lane, a renowned music therapist in Cleveland, has traveled to Breckenridge for the last six years to talk to the young musicians about alternative ways of using their music to affect people. Every year, she takes a select group of NRO musicians to Summit Medical Center and Timberline Adult Day Services in Frisco to play music.
“It's important because I see myself in them — this energy and passion for music and extreme artistic talent — and they probably don't know there are other ways to use music,” Lane said.
As a young woman, Lane began graduate school at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, one of the finest music conservatories in the world. She intended to be a renowned opera singer, but after the first year, the college did not invite her back. She was devastated, she said.
She got married and decided to return to school when her son turned 5. It was then she heard about music therapy. The career blended her need to nurture and serve with her passion for music, she said.
She worked with developmentally delayed children for six-and-a-half years before getting cancer 20 years ago and joining a support group. Afterward, she wrote a song of thanks for the healing and support, and the song, “We Can Cope,” found its way to the American Cancer Society's office, which asked Lane to record it.
From there, a stoic, skeptical doctor challenged Lane to work part time at his bone marrow transplant center at University Hospitals of Cleveland for a year as a volunteer, and then “he'd see” about hiring her. Within six months, Lane had three patients wake up from a coma while she sang, she had nurses and doctors picking up their old instruments and playing for patients, and she unwittingly compelled patients' families to send letters of gratitude and praise for her work to the doctor. All of her success led the doctor to ask: “When can you start and how much do you want?”
“From there, it has been nothing short of a dream,” Lane said.
She's now the resident director of music therapy at the hospital, and she has earned her Ph.D. in music education.
Lane, a renowned music therapist in Cleveland, has traveled to Breckenridge for the last six years to talk to the young musicians about alternative ways of using their music to affect people. Every year, she takes a select group of NRO musicians to Summit Medical Center and Timberline Adult Day Services in Frisco to play music.
“It's important because I see myself in them — this energy and passion for music and extreme artistic talent — and they probably don't know there are other ways to use music,” Lane said.
As a young woman, Lane began graduate school at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, one of the finest music conservatories in the world. She intended to be a renowned opera singer, but after the first year, the college did not invite her back. She was devastated, she said.
She got married and decided to return to school when her son turned 5. It was then she heard about music therapy. The career blended her need to nurture and serve with her passion for music, she said.
She worked with developmentally delayed children for six-and-a-half years before getting cancer 20 years ago and joining a support group. Afterward, she wrote a song of thanks for the healing and support, and the song, “We Can Cope,” found its way to the American Cancer Society's office, which asked Lane to record it.
From there, a stoic, skeptical doctor challenged Lane to work part time at his bone marrow transplant center at University Hospitals of Cleveland for a year as a volunteer, and then “he'd see” about hiring her. Within six months, Lane had three patients wake up from a coma while she sang, she had nurses and doctors picking up their old instruments and playing for patients, and she unwittingly compelled patients' families to send letters of gratitude and praise for her work to the doctor. All of her success led the doctor to ask: “When can you start and how much do you want?”
“From there, it has been nothing short of a dream,” Lane said.
She's now the resident director of music therapy at the hospital, and she has earned her Ph.D. in music education.
Transformations
Lane tells her stories of patients' transformations with a sense of full-heartedness, humor and suspense. Monday, NRO musicians sat listening attentively, laughing, clapping and joining in when Lane signaled, as she told stories of training a 7-year-old girl to use the bathroom by working with a potty that played music when liquid hit it. She relived singing with young Joey whose developmental delays left him only singing his name — until Lane worked with him for 15 minutes and led him to sing new words, as well as address his teacher when she came back into the room. And she showed “Today Show” footage depicting her working with underprivileged preschoolers who ended up improving their test scores by as much as 93 percent through a music therapy program the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland asked her to start.Her message to the students was profound. She admitted she beat herself up for years about what she couldn't do (sing opera professionally) “instead of being joyful in the moment for what I do have.” She told the musicians:
“Know that your music can do wonderful things … You never know where your music can take you.”
And many of them took the message in deeply. Bassoonist Gareth Thomas had never thought music could affect people with genetic problems.
“It opened my eyes to the power of music,” Thomas said.
It inspired violinist Ashley Dyer to learn more and continue playing for elderly people in hospitals.
A couple of musicians studying in Cleveland, like cellist Carlos Javier and pianist Zsolt Bognar, said they had thought of volunteering to use their music before, but didn't know how. Both plan to contact Lane when they return to Ohio.
“She brought a lot of humanity to her talk,” Bognar said. “She pulled us in with her story about her life and finding meaning through music … We all like to believe we can make a difference with our music, and this speaks to that.”
