Through her role at MercyOne Des Moines Foundation, Mobile Music Lessons founder Sophia S. Ahmad facilitated a special musical piece for a special project. To celebrate the opening of the new MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center, MercyOne Des Moines Foundation commissioned an original work for string quartet called A Musical Blessing, written by Pandora chief musicologist Nolan Gasser. The public world premiere of the work was held on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 and performed by the Belin Quartet at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines.
Through music, the piece depicts a cancer journey, and includes musical elements that in the composer's research are correlated with positive health benefits, including reduced anxiety and stress. Additionally, there is a portion of the piece that patients can participate with and that will be used in Music As Therapy Programming at the MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center, which is led by Mobile Music Lessons.
Learn more about the piece and listen to it as well as a message from the composer. Learn more about the work in this KCCI story.
The world premiere on Tuesday, May 24, 2022:
The program from the world premiere:
A message from the composer about A Musical Blessing: