Musicorps


It is difficult to imagine the life of a severely injured soldier recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, many have had their lives blown up in every sense of the word. Musicorps is an intensive music rehabilitation program that improves the quality of their lives, and aids healing, during long and difficult periods of recovery.


Musicorps replicates “real world” music relationships so that injured veterans work on, and are motivated to work on, robust goal-oriented projects many hours a day. Based on a model of contemporary music production, Musicorps integrates individualized projects, regular visits by highly accomplished musicians, and the use of a specially-assembled computer-based music workstation along with traditional instruments. Working in any musical style they prefer, veterans are able to learn, play, write, record, and produce original material.


Artists In Residence


Musicorps Artists In Residence are highly accomplished musicians and recording experts who collaborate with participants. Artists In Residence make numerous visits and guide participants through their projects, offering everything from instrumental instruction to production assistance.


“This gives us a piece of us back.”

– SGT Nicholas Firth

 

Praise in the Washington Post


Pulitzer Prize winning author Anne Applebaum, who observed the program, concludes in a column she wrote about it in the Washington Post “the project is extraordinary,” and “thousands more could benefit.” To read a PDF download of her entire column, click here. To read it republished online at Slate.com, click here.


Profile on CNN


To watch CNN’s profile of Musicorps as part of their 2009 Veterans Day tribute, click here. 


Renovation In Music Education


Musicorps is provided by Renovation In Music Education (RIME), a nonprofit organization that helps people, organizations and communities succeed through innovative music partnership programs. RIME has successfully partnered with school systems, orchestras, and even NASA to create unprecedented educational opportunities and musical events. For more information about RIME, please visit us on the web at www.rimemusic.org.


Our Partners


Musicorps is provided to residents of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Fisher Houses. Fisher House is itself a renowned private/public partnership that offers support to injured servicemembers and their families.


With many more injured veterans requesting to participate, we have begun to serve residents of additional housing facilities throughout the Walter Reed campus as well.


Principal equipment has been generously provided by Apple and M-Audio, with additional equipment generously provided by a number of other companies. Please visit our Thanks Page for a more comprehensive list of Musicorps supporters.


Support


If you would be interested in supporting this program, either by providing financial support, instruments or equipment, or becoming an Artist In Residence, please visit our Support Page for additional information.

Benefits


Musicorps provides numerous benefits for injured servicemembers facing months and even years of isolating care. Facing an otherwise abrupt cessation of activity, Musicorps enables them to continue learning, move forward, remain productive, achieve goals, transcend disability, and do something they love, even as they recover from multiple serious injuries. For some, it has been transformative. One described a “ripple effect” improving every aspect of his recovery. Another exclaimed “it’s given a lot of us hope.”


Because music involves so many aspects of brain function, it is also believed to aid recovery from TBI (traumatic brain injury). Concussive blasts from IEDs and other explosions cause TBI, and it has been called the signature injury of the Iraq war. Learning, creating, and performing music involves so many aspects of brain function that it is believed to recruit uninjured parts of the brain to compensate for parts that have been injured, and to help those parts that are injured recover. Among others, Musicorps is advised by Dr. Allen Brown, Director of Brain Research and Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic.

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Origins


Musicorps began when composer and founder of Renovation In Music Education (RIME), Arthur Bloom, was invited to visit a soldier recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The soldier, a musician who had been badly injured by an IED, was concerned about the effects of his injuries on his ability to play music. In conversations with Bloom, the soldier expressed his pain, frustration, and as the seed of an idea took root, enthusiasm for a music program.


Bloom and RIME committed to developing an unprecedented program that would not only benefit this particular soldier, but any who wished to participate, at any level, under any circumstance. Indeed, the program has successfully accommodated a broad variety of participants working in styles ranging from hardcore and metal to classical and rap, using instruments ranging from keyboards and software to guitars and native American flutes.