An unsigned article in Saturday’s (3/21) Oil City News (Casper, Wyoming) reports on a new partnership between the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and Wyoming Medical Center, involving quarterly performances as part of the medical center’s new music therapy program. The partnership was launched on March 9 when WSO musicians Richard Turner and Bunky Walker played for medical center patients and visitors. “For the first session, Turner and Walker started in the new West Tower lobby and then moved on to the surgical and cardiac floors…. The idea started with Dave Branson, a symphony patron a former fine arts coordinator for Washoe County schools in Reno, Nev. There, he helped form a similar partnership between high school musicians and Renown Medical Center. The impact on patients was extraordinary, Branson said.… Nurses told Branson that patients started showing up 45 minutes before a performance, and some patients needed fewer medications and had less depression over time…. ‘This partnership also fits right in to the symphony’s Music on the Move program aimed at taking its music out to the community,’ said Makayla Hallford, symphony development director.” The article includes a short video of Turner and Walker performing at the Wyoming Medical Center.
Posted March 23, 2015
