Beautiful music: children play for sick children
As Kelsey Mineau recovers from her third surgery to correct a severe scoliosis, a performance by the Saskatoon Strings youth orchestra at Royal University Hospital was something to look forward to.
“It is quiet most times. A little excitement for the kids perks them up,” her mother, Rose Mineau, said Tuesday after the short concert on the pediatric floor.
“She was sad she couldn’t stay longer. She was tired. Sitting up is pretty hard on her. But the few minutes that she was here, she enjoyed it,” Mineau said.
That brief respite from long and often painful days in a hospital bed was just what the head of pediatrics, Dr. Laurentiu Givelichian, hoped for with the partnership with the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra.
“The number of children who can come to watch is not that high.
“But the ones that are able to come have really been touched by the fact that other children play music for them,” Givelichian said.
Music itself is a therapy, and having children play for other children doubles the benefit, he said.
“We hope to lift their spirits and to be able to get through these tougher moments in their lives,” he said.
Cellist Hana Stewart said she likes to hear happy music when she is sick and she hoped the music, some playful, some sad and some uplifting, would help the children who could hear it.
The concert was the second in two years; Givelichian said he hopes to have more frequent concerts in the future.
He especially hopes the children will come to play when the new Children’s Hospital is built, he said.