Last week we lost the wonderfully talented flutist/recorder player Eileen Hadidian. Eileen had given many of the last years of her life helping others heal through music through the nonprofit she founded, as well as by recording with the ensembles Healing Muses and In Nova Cantica.
We recently released In Nova Cantica's album of traditional Christmas-time carols and dances, featuring Eileen (with other musicians).
Eileen's "Healing Muses" was founded because of her personal experience in 1999 during her own first battle with cancer, where music had greatly helped. The Healing Muses program grew quickly to include many Northern California hospitals, and in 2002 Eileen incorporated Healing Muses as a nonprofit organization.
The "Healing Muses" program now features numerous other musicians, including harpists Patrice Haan, Maureen Brennan and Diana Rowan, who all also have extensive experience in the healing arts, medical science and social welfare.
In addition to their main passion of providing live music in hospitals, Healing Muses offers lectures, workshops and concerts demonstrating the healing power of music. Interviews have appeared in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, on National Public Radio, and in the Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society. Their three CDs can be found on Magnatune and a playbook of sheet music entitled "Heart's Ease: Music to Uplift the Spirit and Chase Away Pain, Discomfort and Stress" is also available.
Rest in peace Eileen, you'll always be with us and thank you for bringing such musical joy to us all.
As a gesture of respect for Eileen's life and contribution, Magnatune is giving its entire share of Healing Muses' royalties (usually, Magnatune gets 50%, the musician gets 50%) for 2012 directly to Healing Muses, which is a registered non-profit company, and which continues now.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
If you like the music that Eileen made with Healing Muses and In Nova Cantica, please download their albums, so that your monthly membership royalties go to them. If you're not a member yet, think about joining Magnatune and then downloading her music.
John--
Thanks so much for honoring the life and work of Eileen and Healing Muses. I played with her a few times at East Bay Recorder Society meetings, and she was always a delight to be around. I'm amazed at how many lives she touched through her music. She will be greatly missed, but I'm glad that her music lives on.
Bill
Posted by: Bill Stewart | December 30, 2012 at 12:53 AM
Eileen taught at the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop several years and I had the pleasure of being in several of her classes. Such a kind and gentle teacher - the kind you always remember. I have kept track of her in the ARS Magazine, but was surprised to read here that she had just passed away. A great loss.
Posted by: barbara jean collins | January 09, 2013 at 03:18 PM