While Joyce Pole was recovering from treatment for multiple myeloma, she wanted to find a special project to help her deal with her new situation. The retired health-care manager found that opportunity when her music therapist suggested she join a choir.
Not just any choir, however. One composed of people who have experienced cancer.
So, in the summer of 2017, she went to her first practice of the Sylvester Singers Survivorship Choir, directed by Mary Adelyn Kauffman, DMA, MT-BC, NMT, and music therapist at Sylvester. The decision proved life-changing. “It’s brought me so much satisfaction,” says Pole, 70. “Sometimes my thoughts go round and round with worry about the future, but when I’m singing, I live in the moment. Everything else is on the back burner.”
That’s precisely what Dr. Kauffman intended when she started the choir. A choral conductor before she returned to college to pursue an advanced degree in music therapy, Dr. Kauffman was well aware of the power of music and created the survivorship choir during her graduate internship in 2017.
“Singing,” she says, “changes people’s moods. I’ve seen how happy they get and how their mood changes. Music uplifts. It provides joy for both the singer and the audience.”
This is particularly important during the long road that is cancer recovery and survival. Or as another choir member, Nancy Lou Capizzi- DeMeo, puts it, “This is the kind of thing you don’t know you need until you do it. It takes you somewhere outside yourself.”
The Sylvester choir is made up of more than survivors. Some singers are still in treatment. Others are caregivers who decide to join because they like to sing and because it’s a fun activity to do with their loved ones, separate from what may feel like endless rounds of clinic visits.
The benefits of joining the choir go beyond singing. Members become friends. “You form a fellowship with different folks because you’re having fun together,” Pole says. “It has changed my outlook. I’m calmer. I’m a little more relaxed, and I feel more refreshed.”