Florida’s Palm Beach Symphony is partnering with Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches to create remote, interactive music therapy sessions for young patients and their families at Quantum House and the Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s in West Palm Beach. The sessions normally are held in person and have transitioned to a virtual model during the pandemic. The program, called Nurturing Notes, is led by board-certified music therapist Bree Gordon, director of Creative Arts Therapies; videos are recorded with members of the Middle Bridge Trio of musicians from the orchestra: violinists Valentin Mansurov and Marina Lenau and double-bassist Jeff Adkins. Children snap their fingers, drum out a rhythm, or sing along as they are guided through the online session. The orchestra’s Nurturing Notes program is also offered to vulnerable and isolated populations throughout the community, including to seniors in assisted-living and memory-care communities, at-risk children, veterans and Holocaust survivors with PTSD, and those receiving in-patient care for medical or mental health needs. In one of the last in-person sessions at Quantum House this spring, St. Louis Cardinals shortstop and Palm Beach Symphony supporter Paul DeJong joined the children in making music and handed out autographed baseballs.
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