ABSTRACT
Music cannot take the place of medical or psychological treatment. Only music therapists are trained and licensed to use music to achieve clinical outcomes. Certain music and types of presentation can in fact be injurious rather than healing and must be avoided. Learning to navigate may result in a transformed artistic practice or a new professional direction. The hospital, in all its complexity, can be fertile ground for the genesis of creative projects and a remarkable context for authentic artistic expression and human connection. Musicians engage with two distinct populations: patients, their families, and caretakers; and healthcare providers, staff, and health sciences students. Music serves as a source of positive distraction, entertainment, stress reduction, creative engagement, and interpersonal connection for the hospital’s customers, while its employees and trainees encounter music as a workplace enhancement and have access to musical activities as a form of personal enrichment and professional development.
