Juilliard Students Embark on a Mission of Music and Healing

Violinist Caeli Smith founded Rayos de Canción (Rays of Music) to raise awareness about the power of music to facilitate healing.

In recent years, there has been a lot of research about the healing power of music for people with physical and neurological disabilities. Juilliard student and From the Top alum Caeli Smith was inspired by these studies to create Rayos de Canción, an arts leadership project comprised of five classical musicians and one dancer who are committed to raising awareness about music’s ability to heal.

In May 2011, these young musicians traveled to Antigua, Guatemala, to work in a hospital called Las Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro (Social Works of Brother Pedro). This hospital focuses on providing care and sustenance to poor people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. The trip was financed by a seed grant from Juilliard and money raised from benefit recitals.

Caeli says, “The facility does not have enough volunteer staff to spend much time interacting creatively with the inpatients, which is a critical part of their development. Thus, it depends on outside volunteers to come in and physically and emotionally engage the inpatients. This is where Rayos de Canción comes in.”

Because patients don’t have opportunities for musical interaction, Caeli and her group introduced them to live classical music. The dancer helped guide exercises in rhythm and movement while the others performed.

“Being new to the country and the facility, we were curious and a bit nervous to see how our music would be received. We got fantastic results! The children who could speak told us they loved the music, and the rest responded with their bodies; calming down if they were restless and moved erratically, perking up if they were listless and still, even moving in rhythm and dancing to the beat!” Caeli wrote to us.

One memorable experience from the trip revolves around a 13-year-old patient named Arianna, who is three feet long and cannot walk or talk. Caeli remembers, “Two members of our group launched into a fun, rhythmic duo near where we were sitting. I already knew that Arianna had a sweet disposition and loved to have fun, and many times I saw her smile when she was enjoying herself. As the music began, Arianna, broke out into a huge grin, the biggest reaction I had ever seen from her. I stood up and brought her closer to the source of the music, and her smile grew even wider. That experience embodied the whole point of the trip for me; introducing something wonderful that I love to someone else, and sharing the joy of it together.”