In Monday’s (3/12) Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), Gayle Worland writes, “Music belongs to everyone—which is the reason violinists Suzanne Beia and Laura Burns, violist Christopher Dozoryst and cellist Karl Lavine are out and about on a chilly winter afternoon, heading to the Central Wisconsin Center with their instruments and a thick folder of music. The musicians make up the string quartet HeartStrings, an outreach program of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Since 2006 the group has made the rounds of nursing homes, retirement centers, the children’s hospital, family resource centers and facilities for people with developmental disabilities such as Central Wisconsin Center to perform a live, interactive program grounded in the principles of music therapy. … HeartStrings has been so successful it earned MSO a $65,000 Society for the Arts in Healthcare grant from Johnson & Johnson to publish a guidebook for orchestras around the world that would like to copy its model. … HeartStrings recently expanded to serve children with autism and Down syndrome, said violinist Beia, who arranges much of the group’s music and serves as emcee for many of its relaxed, informal performances.”
Photo by Greg Anderson
Posted March 13, 2012
