Music Program
Contact Information
Director: Greg Kaufman
Phone: (650) 725-2892
Fax: (650) 736-4130
Location: Guest Services
300 Pasteur Drive
Room H1132
Stanford, CA 94305
The Music Program at Stanford Hospital provides music to patients, visitors and staff, which include live concerts, ambient music on the units, musician bedside visits, and portable CD players with a selection of CDs for patients' use. To make a request, please call (650) 498-3333.
Medical Benefits of Music
Music has been used in all cultures to uplift and invigorate, as well as calm and ease.
"The power of music to integrate and cure is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest non-chemical medication."
— Oliver Sacks, Awakenings
Music in the Intensive Care Unit and with cancer patients has been shown to reduce pain perception, alter blood pressure and respiration, ameliorate chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and increase relaxation and improve mood.
“Half an hour of music produces the same effect as ten milligrams of valium.”
— Dr. Raymond Bahr
Bing Concert Series
All patients, families, visitors and staff are welcome to enjoy weekly concerts performed by professional quality musicians in the hospital atrium, at 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, every Wednesday and Friday. View the detailed concert schedule
Music on the Hospital Units
Music on the hospital nursing units allows patients, families and staff to experience the healing value of music at their bedside. The presence of an attentive musician in the room or nearby can add to a patient’s healing process. Our Hospital Musicians are also available to bring comfort to those involved in end-of-life situations.
This program provides music seven days a week for patients and visitors alike. Our Hospital Musicians include vocalists and harpists: Barbra Telynor, Barbary Grant, Verlene Schermer, and guitarist Jeff Buenz. All room visit requests are free of charge. To request Bedside Music, please call Guest Services at (650) 498-3333.
CDs on the Units
Portable CD players and a selection of CDs are available for patients' use. Coordinators Fanny Zychlinsky and Wally Austin have diverse and extensive backgrounds in music. They will help you find the right music to soothe and calm, to energize and to carry the hope and vitality of health. To request CD players and CDs, please call Guest Services at (650) 498-3333.
Ambient Piano Series at Stanford Cancer Center
Every Wednesday and Thursday, at 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm, listeners can enjoy talented pianists playing soothing and inspiring music from classical and new age repertories in a casual environment. Ambient Piano Series schedule for September 2010. Initiated in August 2005, the Ambient Piano Series is sponsored by Carolyn and William Reller, in honor of Dr. Paul Fisher and Dr. Steven Chang.
The Carolyn Wiedemann Reller Summer Concert Series at Stanford Hospital
This popular series started its fourth season on June 15, 2010. Concerts take place every other Tuesday at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, from June 15 through October 19. Click here for the 2010 Concert Schedule. The concerts take place outdoors in the space adjacent to the patio, located behind the rear entrance of the Center for Advanced Medicine (Cancer Center) and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Attendees can relax on the lawn or provided seating while they enjoy a concert by some of the Bay Area's best musicians. The Reller Summer Concert Series is made possible by the generous sponsorship of William Reller in honor of Carolyn Wiedemann Reller.
A patient at the Center for Advanced Medicine summed up their experience of the music program with these words for patients, families, and staff :
“The music is a great source of peace and has an amazing calming effect."
—Patient at Stanford Hospital & Clinics