Violist can attest to the healing power of music

Penny Anderson has long known the power of music in the concert hall. But recently, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violist has learned new ways for music to help people.

During treatment for breast cancer during the past two years, Anderson found music had a powerful effect on how she coped with the pain and emotions raised by her illness. Now she pursues the idea of music's possibilities for healing with local music therapists and social workers.

'I noticed when I was going through surgeries and chemotherapy that there were certain pieces we played in the orchestra that made me feel stronger and were helpful in reducing anxiety,' Anderson says. 'Also, because I listened to music before and after surgery, I didn't need pain medication after my mastectomy.'

When she played music by Igor Stravinsky, she says, 'it dealt with the fear I was feeling and helped get over it faster.' Hearing Pinchas Zukerman play the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Spring' Sonata as an encore during a Florida tour helped her to feel stronger.

Performers as well as music may produce positive effects, she says. 'With Yo-Yo Ma, it was not the pieces he played, but that he doesn't hold back and is living fully in the moment. His use of energy was what was most helpful.'

Hearing baritone Thomas Hampson sing songs by Aaron Copland left Anderson feeling as though she could handle everything. 'It was his energy and his voice,' she says. 'It turns out there are certain ranges of pitch that affect your body. For some reason, the cello range, the range of his voice, did what I needed.'

Anderson says she even found she was affected by the unusual seating plan of one classical piece, Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis.' She played in the smaller group of strings the composer uses as a contrast to the main body of strings.

'It felt like the old in-crowd and out-crowd to me,' she says. 'One of the issues you face when you're going through chemotherapy is that you feel a little like a marked person, a little like an outside. Being in that small group, I had to face this issue.'

To share the insights of her experiences, Anderson met with social workers at Magee Women's Hospital to develop a program that would add music to support group activities. She researched literature going back to World War II, when music therapy was used to help shell-shocked troops. And she worked with Sister Donna Marie Beck, head of the music therapy department at Duquesne University.

Anderson's goal is 'to effect positive changes in the emotional and physical well-being of support group participants by teaching them relaxation and visualization skills as well as other skills. The idea is to enable patients to have more of a feeling of self-control.'

The sequence of music played is structured to help with coping, and the program also seeks to bring up feelings of sadness and grief to cope with them and to energize participants.

She turned to symphony colleague Paul Silver as a partner for support-group performances. They already had performed as a duo several times when they were picked as a premium at Symphony Balls.

'We would present an evening of duets in people's homes,' Silver says. 'I'd take along a keyboard, and she'd play violin for Irish jigs. We had the beginnings of a small body of music.'

Wednesday evening, they played again for the ovarian cancer support group at Magee, and began with a bouncy duo by baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann. 'It was a sorbet between the regular work day and a relaxed state,' Silver says. They then played a short piece with a drone bass by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Music with a drone bass - where the low note stays the same while the rest of the music moves above - has proven to be helpful in developing focus.

Anderson and Silver also improvise, often with a bagpipe-like drone on the bottom. Playing violin and viola, they find the key of G major resonates really well.

'Patients report the benefit (of music) to me,' says Magee oncology social worker Judith Knapp. 'It is a different approach to help people address feelings, concerns, fears, that they have and can't address directly.

'There is some research data showing guided imagery with music can produce changes in body functioning,' Knapp says. 'For example, with patients undergoing chemo, nausea and vomiting is reduced. We theorize there is some connection between the body and the soul.'

Anderson has found support for her project at the Pittsburgh Symphony. Last month, the orchestra's Education and Outreach Department brought nationally recognized music therapist Deforia Lane in for an overview of the power of music in the hospital setting.

Lane is a former opera singer whose roommate at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music was Kathleen Battle, who became a superstar soprano. Lane's work at the University Hospitals of Cleveland Ireland Cancer Center documents the power of music in the hospital setting.

Her research has shown exposure to music increases the level of an enzyme associated with the immune system. And she found patient stays in the neo-natal intensive care unit were reduced by about 25 percent when the infants were exposed to music.

There are many fronts in the fight against cancer. Today, Anderson and her family will walk the Race for the Cure. But using her skill as a musician to help other cancer survivors is a year-round mission.

Mark Kanny can be reached at (412) 320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com .