Music Bridges Program

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 The Lullaby Project pairs new and expecting parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting parental health, aiding childhood development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child.

Lullaby Project in Partnership with Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/Programs/Lullaby-Project is an evidence-informed, low cost, safe and scalable approach to supporting caregivers, infants, and early relational health. The Lullaby Project invites families to create, sing, and record their own personal lullabies. Since its inception in 2011, the Lullaby Project has helped to create approximately 4000 lullabies, in over 40 countries, and currently has 60+ Lullaby Partners across the world.

Through the Lullaby Project families are invited to create and sing personal lullabies for their babies with the help of professional musicians. Creating, singing, and sharing lullabies promotes overall family well-being by supporting caregiver/ maternal health, early child development, and parent-child bonding. 

Program Outcomes 

• Being Well: More parents experience a growing sense of their own agency, creativity, well being, self-confidence and capacity to be loving, sensitive and responsive care givers. 

• Strengthening Community: The writing and singing of lullabies strengthens relationships between parents, children and their community members. 

• Early Child Development: Lullaby lyrics, and the talking and singing that accompany them, can soothe a child and provide important opportunities for young children to hear new vocabulary, figurative language, elegant phrases, as well as exaggeration and jokes. 

• Cultural Expression and Sharing: Lullabies reflect the diverse linguistic and musical cultures that parents wish to share with their children. Songs have been written in over 40 different languages and in a diverse range of musical styles. These songs are shared with families and communities through a growing library of online recordings and live-streamed performances that extend the reach of participant stories, accomplishments, language and culture. 

Families Create New Lullabies 

Throughout the season, families will work with teaching artists to develop personal lullabies that reflect parent’s hopes and dreams for their children, in their language and musical style of choice. Carried out in a variety of project models, the program is adapted to best meet the needs of families and the community, including one on one sessions, group sessions, single sessions / multi-sessions, in person and/or online. Teaching artists will create demo recordings of each personal or group lullaby, which are shared with families and staff. Through workshops, recordings and concert experiences, parents come together to share, celebrate and sing their lullabies, encouraging parents to sing with their young children and to further support parent-child bonding.

Families Record, Perform & Share Lullabies 

Select lullabies are professionally recorded and shared publicly on the Lullaby Soundcloud page, which currently has a total of 103k streams in over 50 countries around the globe including Argentina, Mexico, Canada, UK, and France. In addition to recordings, select lullabies are performed live in concert as part of Carnegie Hall’s annual Lullaby Project Celebration Concert and live streamed via YouTube and social media channels. Carnegie Hall will continue to promote the Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project album, featuring New York City lullabies recorded by major artists including Joyce DiDonato, Patti LuPone, Pretty Yende, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dianne Reeves, Rosanne Cash, Fiona Apple, Rhiannon Giddens, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Natalie Merchant, and Angelique Kidjo. Proceeds of the album benefit the original songwriters and support the Lullaby Project. 

Evaluation and Research 

Over the past decade, Carnegie Hall has worked with evaluators at WolfBrown to explore the impact that early music engagement and the Lullaby Project have on family well-being. Based on WolfBrown’s positive early findings, Dr. Catherine Monk, Associate Professor and Director for Research of the Women’s Program at Columbia University Medical Center, evaluated the effects of the Lullaby Project on familial relationships, language development, and maternal distress. In 2017, Virginia Commonwealth University and Jacobi Medical Center conducted a sample research study on lullabies and maternal well being, funded by the NEA. WolfBrown is currently evaluating the Philadelphia Lullaby Project as part of an NEA Research Lab, examining the role of music in parent-child mutuality. In partnership with Mount Sinai Health System’s Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, Carnegie Hall is also currently part of the NEA AMEND Lab (Assessment of Music Experiences in Navigating Depression), to understand the impact of music experiences in addressing depression and social/emotional wellbeing. 

• WolfBrown’s report on music and early childhood, including the Lullaby Project: Why Music Making Matters: Singing, Playing, and Moving in the Early Years 

• WolfBrown’s research paper takes a closer look at how and why lullabies make a difference: Lullaby: Being Together, Being Well 

• Bernard VanLeer report on global music in early childhood, including the Lullaby Project: Making a Joyful Noise: The Potential Role of Music Making in the Well-Being of Young Families

 Interactive, theatrical, and educational concerts

• Musical Storytelling: Enjoy storyteller with musicians for newly created tale. "Musical petting zoo" and games before the concert.
•  "Music from Around the World" 
•  "The life of the Composer"  Humorous insights into the classical repertoire

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Events/Well-Being-Concerts

Concert combine world-class musical performances with elements of self-care and mindfulness, animated by evidence that music helps people heal and thrive. Each concert creates an immersive, nurturing space in which audiences and performers share in the soul-nourishing benefits of music, create shared experiences, and explore tools for well-being that last long after the performance. 

Please contact us to schedule concerts at your organization.

Prospective participants: Resilience 12-20

This program combines world-class musical performances with elements of self-care and mindfulness, animated by evidence that music helps people heal and thrive. Each concert creates an immersive, nurturing space in which audiences and performers share in the soul-nourishing benefits of music, create shared experiences, and explore tools for well-being that last long after the performance. 

A substantial body of evidence now demonstrates that the arts can play an important role in promoting health and health equity across the lifespan.

Research shows that music can improve well-being and enhance mood, while also reducing the physical and psychological markers associated with stress, anxiety, and depression.

These findings inspired the development of our inaugural season of concerts.

Our mission to bring the transformative power of music to the widest possible audience, The Well-Being Concert series creates a new platform to evaluate, optimize, and share the joy and benefits of musical engagement with individuals and communities who might not otherwise have access.

The Music 

Each concert is co-created through a collaborative process among performers, expert advisors, and an event host. Musicians and host are selected for their ability to resonate with the audience and support well-being. 

The Experience 

Each Well-Being Concert is unique and yet connected to all other concerts in the series by the intention to explore the transformative power of music and the integration of self- and communal-care practices with performance. 

The performances are designed to create an immersive, nurturing space. Audience members recline on floor mats, use cushions or seat on chairs. The audience is on the same level as the performers who are in the center of the space, surrounded by the audience, offering a context for intimate, shared experiences. 

Our hope is that these wellness-focused musical experiences will: 

• Offer a soul-nourishing new way to benefit from music. 

• Use the power of silence and sound to create shared experiences that build community. 

• Provide audience members with tools and practices that they can take home with them after the concert experience.

Research/Learning 

The Well-Being Concert series is an experimental space and artistic laboratory where individual scholars and teams of scientists across disciplines can partner with Carnegie Hall to ask important questions about the relationship between music and health. We are currently partnering with the Social Interaction Lab at the University of California, Berkeley under the guidance of Professor of Psychology, Dacher Keltner.

Background

“As soon as I walked into the room, I felt my heart rate going down. I felt my breathing coming back. And it just continued throughout the event…when I left, there out on the street, everything was a bit brighter and calmer and nicer.” -Well-Being Concert participant 

Carnegie Hall launched a new concert series during the 2022/2023 season to creatively explore the impact live music can have on individual and collective well-being. The Well-Being Concert series offers thoughtfully curated concerts of the highest quality to amplify the social, physical, emotional, and educational benefits of musical performances.

Two out of five American adults report symptoms of anxiety or depression (2) and an overwhelming majority of the public (90%) believes that there is a mental health crisis in this country.

Major depressive disorder is the single greatest source of disability, yet less than 40% of the over half million who have depression report receiving care for it.

At the center of the national crisis is an extreme shortage of behavioral health providers. Over one-third of Americans live in communities where the number of mental health providers cannot meet the population’s needs.

Design and Implementation 

The Well-Being Concert series is rooted in over a decade of experience by the Weill Music Institute (WMI) in presenting concerts in diverse and often high stress public spaces. The Audience The series features back-to-back concerts in Weill Music Room, a center-stage experience in Zankel Hall, and off-site venues including St. John the Divine Cathedral in the 24/25 season. Concerts are presented for the general public as well as for specific audience groups including veterans and healthcare workers. Seats are set aside for individuals and community groups with whom WMI has long standing relationships, including New York City workers and those whose lives have been impacted by the justice system. 

The Music 

Each concert is co-created through a collaborative process among Carnegie Hall curators and staff, performers, expert advisors, and an event host. Musicians and host are selected for their ability to resonate with the audience and support well-being. 

The Experience 

Each Well-Being Concert is unique and yet connected to all other concerts in the series by the intention to explore the transformative power of music and the integration of self- and communal-care practices with performance. The performances are designed to create an immersive, nurturing space. Audience members recline on floor mats or use cushions. The audience is on the same level as the performers who are in the center of the space, surrounded by the audience, offering a context for intimate, shared experiences. Research/Learning Our hope is that these wellness-focused musical experiences will: • Offer a soul-nourishing new way to benefit from music. • Use the power of silence and sound to create shared experiences that build community. • Provide audience members with tools and practices that they can take home with them after the concert experience. The Well-Being Concert series is an experimental space and artistic laboratory where individual scholars and teams of scientists across disciplines can partner with Carnegie Hall to ask important questions about the relationship between music and health. We are currently partnering with the Social Interaction Lab at the University of California, Berkeley under the guidance of Professor of Psychology, Dacher Keltner. 

References: 

1. Enact Lab. The Sound of Well-being: Carnegie Hall Well-being Concerts 2023. Unpublished Internal Report: 2023. 

2. The White House. President Biden to Announce Strategy to Address Our National Mental Health Crisis, As Part of Unity Agenda in his First State of the Union. 2022 [cited 2023]; Available from: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/01/fact-sheet president-biden-to-announce-strategy-to-address-our-national-mental-health-crisis-as-part-of unity-agenda-in-his-first-state-of-the-union/. 

3. Lopes L, Kirzinger A, Follow GS, Stokes M, Brodie M. KFF/CNN Mental Health In America Survey. KFF The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news. 2022. https://www.kff.org/report-section/kff-cnn-mental-health-in-america-survey-findings/ 

4. Muenning, P., Goldsmith, J.A., El-Sayed A.M., Goldmann, E.S., Quan, R., Barracks S., Cheung J., Behavioral Health in New York City: The Burden, Cost, and Return on Investment. Unpublished Raw Data, 2015. 

5. USA Facts. Over one-third of Americans live in areas lacking mental health professionals. 2021; Available from: https://usafacts.org/articles/over-one-third-of-americans-live-in-areas-lacking mental-health-professionals/. 

6. Fancourt, Daisy & Finn, Saoirse. (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329834. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. 

7. Sajnani N, Fietje N. The Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the WHO Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts. The Lancet. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01959-1. 

8. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Music and Health: What You Need To Know. 2022 [cited 2023]; Available from: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/music-and-health-what-you-need-to-know.