Harp playing serves as therapy for City of Hope cancer patients

by Shiara M. Davila Staff Writer - April 13, 2003

Two-and-a-half months ago, 58-year-old Akira Curtiss had never picked up an instrument.

Then, Curtiss-an outpatient at City of Hope in Duarte was introduced to the Harps for Hearts music therapy program, which offers concerts and music workshops for patients, families and caretakers.

Now, just 10 weeks after picking up a harp for the first time, the Duarte resident can identify different notes, play basic pieces from memory and he's learning how to read music. Curtiss said his initial visit to City of Hope was four years and four months ago, at which time he was combating cancer and diabetes.

"I have seen the healing effect of music in general and specifically the harp," said Curtiss, a former US Marines drill sergeant and Vietnam veteran. "With all the problems I have had, all the help I can get in improving the quality of my health is of great importance to me."

On April 8, Curtiss and about 15 others enjoyed a 40-minute concert followed by a harp-playing workshop at City of Hope. Ten harps, four of them owned by the City of Hope, were on hand for participants to practice with.

Karen Johnson, 49, practiced on a Celtic lap harp. Johnson, who has been at City of Hope since February, was turned on to the concerts and workshops after a nurse overheard her listening to a harp-music CD sent to her by a friend.

She said she opted to participate in Harps for hearts to fulfill a childhood dream. Johnson, a single mother of five from Rio Rancho, New Mexico, is presently fighting acute myelogenous leukemia. She had a bone marrow transplant in 1996 and anticipates that she may soon have another.

"I wanted to play harp so bad," she said. "I'd pretend (to play) but I never learned... (Now), I finally got to play harp. I'm 49 years old and now I'm having my dream come true. This is gonna be part of my healing. It's just very comforting, very healing."

Johnson practices regularly on her own. When she's better, she said, she hopes to play songs of praise and worship and, when she goes home, she hopes to be able to take a harp with her.

Johnson's enthusiasm for the harp's soothing sounds has proven strong even when she's been too ill to hold up the instrument.

"Last week I couldn't practice because I was very, very ill," she said. "But I would just take it out and strum it.. I play my emotions."

The American Music Therapy Association, a Silver Spring, Md.-based organization that works to advance the public's awareness of music therapy, reports that such therapy is a form of sensory stimulation that consists of using music to address physical, psychological, cognitive and social problems.

Music therapy can help relieve pain and reduce stress and anxiety, resulting in physiological changes that include improved respiration, lowered blood pressure, relaxed muscle tension and a reduced heart rate, according to the AMTA Web site.

Harps for Hearts, part of City of Hope's Art for the Heart Transitions Program, began almost two years ago when musician Lisa Lynne approached several hospitals in the Los Angeles area with the idea of developing a monthly volunteer-based music therapy program.

While her idea was to visit different facilities every month, City of Hope officials liked the suggestion so much they offered her the opportunity to be the hospital's first musician in residence. The program became a reality - complete with a harp library where patients can check out books, CDs and instruments - thanks to a grant from the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts.

Lynne, a 39-year-old Los Angeles-bases artist, said she realized the power of harp music after taking her harps to her grandmother's rest home, at which time the residents "just lit up."

Up until then, some 10 harps had been gathering dust at home because she regularly receives updated models from Triplett harps, the harp's she has played since she first began. Since discovering the harp's healing power, Lynne said it has been her "personal mission" to show others how easy it is to make music with the instrument which she believes prompts a "spiritual journey."

"Harps sound beautiful at the touch of a child," she said. "It's a very forgiving instrument. It's the only instrument easy to the beginner."

Lynne said the purpose of Harps for Hearts is to "grow a garden of harpists" at City of Hope, who can play regularly. In addition, she said, playing the harps helps left patients' spirits because then they have something to look forward to when they get better.

Harps range in price from $500.00 to $4,000, so Lynne said her long-term goal is to encourage the donation of harps or funds for harps to keep the program indefinitely. She said her work with City of Hope inspired her latest CD, titled "Hopes & Dream," which was released in March.

"I put out a CD every year, but I was way behind because I got so involved here," she said. "So, I started writing music here, in the halls. My heart is so big from the people I see and meet that that's where I believe the music came from."

Shiara M. Davila can be reached at (626) 962-8811 Ext. 2801 or by e-mail at shiara.davila@sgun.com