For the members of the club Healing Through Harmony, music is not only a pastime, but a way to give back to their community. The group aims to promote healing and positivity in Providence community spaces by sharing and performing music.
As a service club, Healing Through Harmony often visits and performs in “spaces where people are in the process of healing,” such as assisted living facilities, hospitals and prisons, Emma Lo ’25, one of the group’s outreach coordinators, said.
The club partners with community venues including Miriam Hospital and HopeHealth, where they hold monthly performances. Before each event, volunteer sign-ups are opened for students who are interested in performing.
“We spend a lot of time performing and trying to enter places of healing, but also to spread healing. The main (goal) is to spread the goal of improving health, whether it’s at (senior homes) or here on campus,” said Rohan Panjwani ’28, Healing Through Harmony’s community engagement director.
Athena Deng ’27, the club’s public relations chair, was involved in music-related community service in high school and joined Healing Through Harmony after seeing that the club embraced the same values of providing care through music. As a student musician, she feels that Healing Through Harmony gives its members a more collaborative, light-hearted and social perspective on practicing music.
“I feel like as a classical musician, you’re just isolated,” said Deng. “A lot of the time you don’t really realize how impactful (sharing music) can be … Seemingly small actions can really affect other people and help.”
Healing Through Harmony’s performances also give its members a sense of fulfillment and gratitude by allowing them to see how their music can make a meaningful impact on those around them.
“Coming into places of healing and being allowed into people’s lives when they’re so vulnerable … and being able to do something to make their lives a little bit easier means a lot,” said Lo, who initially joined Healing Through Harmony due to her passion for the intersection of music and health and well-being.
Healing Through Harmony hopes to hold more open performances at Brown and boost member engagement through building stronger relationships with local venues and facilities to further their mission to increase access to music. Next week, the club will kick start its pilot program: Jolly Jam Week. The weeklong program of scheduled festive performances aims to spread holiday cheer among students during finals week. The club aims to make Jolly Jam Week into a recurring event that future members can continue to organize.
“We all appreciate how much value we can bring to people’s lives by just performing for them,” Panjwani said.
Additional Reporting by Ayana Ahuja
Isabel Hahn is an Arts & Culture editor who concentrates in English and Behavioral Decision Sciences. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, reading, and journaling.
