An Orchestra of Abilities | Amplifying Inclusivity and Hope | Episode 109

An Orchestra of Abilities | Amplifying Inclusivity and Hope | Episode 109

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When a chance encounter at a church service led me to Kitrael Chin's extraordinary vision, little did I know it would blossom into a friendship and a collaboration that has touched so many lives. This episode captures the essence of Hearts for Music Inc., an organization that is not just an ensemble but a beacon of hope, where music therapy redefines inclusivity for individuals with disabilities. Kitrael, with his unique blend of psychology and music therapy expertise, paints a vivid picture of how Hearts for Music became a symphony of abilities where every note resonates with possibility and unconditional love.

Prepare to be moved by the symphonic journey from local stages in Summit County, Ohio, to the grand vision of performing in St. Peter's Square for the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee year. The harmony of purpose and passion in this episode is palpable as we explore the transformative power of music across life's spectrum—from the joyous laughter of children with special needs to the profound tranquility in hospice care. The stories of personal growth, such as Jurnee's triumph over tragedy, and the pioneering collaboration with the Akron Symphony, underscore our belief that music is a universal language of connection and resilience.

This auditory embrace rounds off with a celebration of community and an open invitation to share in the resonant beauty of Hearts for Music. Join us as we discuss the organization's aspirations, including an influential performance for the Mayor of Akron and a gala at the Akron Civic Theater. With heartfelt gratitude, we acknowledge the unwavering support of families, team members, and our wider global audience. Whether through attending live performances or tuning in from afar, your involvement helps amplify the melody of Hearts for Music, where every note is an invitation to empowerment and every harmony a call to action.

#inclusivity #InclusiveMusic #MusicTherapy #HeartsForMusic #SymphonicInclusion #EmpowermentThroughMusic #CommunityInHarmony #MusicUnites #inclusivitymatters #Japan #Tokyo #Osaka #Singapore #Malaysia #Australia #Sydney #Melbourne #Brisbane #KualaLumpur

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi everyone, thank you again for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes, and we ask kindly if you can subscribe, like this episode, so we can share and reach as many people as possible to reach my goal and dream of reaching and helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So today, in the studio, our guest. I'm just going to get a little bit of a backstory of how I met our guest. So I was at church one Saturday afternoon so two and a half years, it might even be three and our guest had a red t-shirt on and it said on the back, hearts for music or it might have been the front which he's wearing today. That you'll see.

Speaker 1: 1:08

And for our organization, as you know, we have an event each year and we wanted to bring music to that first event, which is how Voices for Voices started. So long story, just even a little bit longer. After church, I got home, went to the website for the organization Hearts for Music and that's how I first learned about our guest. And since reaching out that day, a couple days later, I think we connected and we maintain a friendship and sharing information, and all with the hopes of helping others.

Speaker 1: 2:04

So the guest today is Mr Kittrell Chin. He is the president, director and the founder of Hearts for Music Inc. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia and that's in Canada, and also a degree in music therapy from Shenandoah University in Virginia. In addition, he is also a professional board certified music therapist with well over 17 years of clinical experience, and his specialty certificate is in hospice and palliative care, music therapy from the New York Center for End of Life Care.

Speaker 1: 2:58

And over the years, our guest, mr Kittrell Chin, has been blessed with the joy and privilege of working with many kids and young adults with Hearts for Music, and we'll get into everything about Hearts for Music, how it began and the growth that has happened in the last couple of years, as well as an announcement for what's to come, as this episode will be airing on Wednesday, january 3rd. So we're excited for all this conversation that we're going to have. So, kittrell, it's great to see you again. Thank you for joining us. Oh, yes, absolutely, it's my pleasure. So maybe if you could talk a little bit about your background and then how Hearts for Music came to be an idea.

Speaker 2: 3:55

Yeah, absolutely so. Thank you for the lovely introduction and the sense of a joy and honor to be on your show. And I started out during. I did a psych degree initially and I wanted to combine psych and music together and I ended this psych originally because I was like, ooh, the idea of controlling people seems good. And then I loved music. I was born on the piano and I've been studying and playing the piano since I was about seven or eight years old and I wanted to see what I could combine the two of them together. Music therapy I just more or less come into the scene. And so from Canada in Vancouver, I bounced on the way to all the way to Virginia and Shando where I did a music therapy degree, and that was like, wow, this is great, this is what I'm calling. So music therapy is the clinical application of music to treat a variety of populations, and currently I'm blessed to have been doing this since oh gosh, 2000. So yeah, almost 23 years.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Yeah, we're 23 years, I'm getting old.

Speaker 2: 5:03

So and I've been also wonderfully blessed to have worked with everyone across the life spectrum, from Neo-Uno units all the way to my, to hospice and of life care. They're 100 years old and it's just been wonderful to see how music impacts every stage of their life and all the disabilities that come across. So about about it's hard, for music was an offshoot of that. Maybe about 10 years, about eight to 10 years ago, I started up a rock band specifically for children and teens with special needs and I did that over the summer and that's been a wonderful, wonderful endeavor to do it. And by being about six, yeah, six, seven years ago I had a bunch of kids come up to me, some of them in tears, telling me they couldn't be part of band, couldn't be part of orchestra, because they just either they were too disabled or they were too artistic. But they were told to the face that they were either too slow, too dumb and if they could play instrument they could play the drum really quietly, all at the back, and that drove me absolutely bonkers because I've been working with them for so long and I knew what they were capable of. But I also have been on the education side of them. I do understand from an education standpoint of view. Yes, they would hold. It's difficult to have a handful of them in a room full of 30 other regular peers. So I do understand that conundrum. But at the same time I was very annoyed that all they were allowed to do was beat a drum at the back. So I said, well, if there's nothing for you, we'll make something for you. So I'm very big about creating unique experiences, and that's what music therapy is. It's crafting experiences to the unique individual, their nature. And so I said, well, yeah, if there isn't anything, let's go make something for you.

Speaker 2: 7:10

And iPads had more or less come into the mainstream, a lot of people using them primarily for speech application communication, and the idea was okay, can I bring these iPads or digital devices and have them play music together, the group? So I went around to my community up in Manoway and I corralled five, six kids and teens with a variety of disabilities. And the idea behind it is if I play a C on a keyboard or any digital instrument and you close your eyes, you can't tell if that person is missing toes, make their fingers, is this able to speak or has cerebral palsy or whatever diagnosis? You just secure sound, and so I wanted to see whether well could we apply that concept across the board. So I swiped a couple of kids and teens and we have some lovely pictures on our Facebook site. Two of the first times when we started that out and I was very pleasantly surprised. One nobody ran away. Two they all had a good time. Three the all worked. It worked. They didn't have to learn to read music, they didn't have to learn how to play instrument, they just simply learned how to learn how to play together. As long as they read their alphabet, they could move their fingers up and down across the chords. So for all intents and purposes, they were a string ensemble and I would overlay the melody on top of it. So now the idea was okay.

Speaker 2: 8:47

As they got bigger and bigger, I found there were more populations we could impact and it was like, okay, exactly how far could I run with this? And the idea was can I include every single disability under the sun under one roof, as far as possible, performing music? And I had this little vision of kiddo and with four years old, a cellful, a paltine wheelchair, all the way to an 80-year-old with Alzheimer's and other special needs and under normal circumstances, as we live now, those worlds are completely separate. Under normal circumstances, a child with several paltines would never, ever in a million years, have the occasional opportunity or the inclination to be friends with an 80-year-old with Alzheimer's. Their worlds are completely separate. Same thing with autism. If you go to activity with autism, you'll see people with autism but you don't see people, say, with cellful palsy interacting. Most of the activities and recreational activities kind of geared towards that particular population, there are very few, if any activities, apart from something like, say, special effects.

Speaker 2: 10:07

But you try to grab everybody together. But what I want to do is completely collide all those worlds together in one spot on one roof altogether. So on a scale and scope that's not been seen. So when we did our research, we found that there are groups and ensembles that have special needs kids and adults, teens, and some of them have actually learned to manipulate instruments. But then you run into the problem that if a kiddo is disabled, missing, amputated and is cognitively disabled to boot, then you run into the problem. Okay, they can manipulate instruments, they can't read music. How do we include them? So you still have exclusions, and I wanted parts of music to be inclusive to the absolute maximum limit that we could do. Where there's no age and there's no disability restrictions. With very, very few exceptions, everybody is invited to come and play music and be in the creative and create the joy of performing in public.

Speaker 2: 11:16

So I'm very fond of telling people now that we now have, from our little group in the basement of Hilltop Christian Church, which was awesome to start things off, we now have several locations throughout Summit County and even beyond where we have our kids, teens and adults all combining to perform music together under one single roof and the repertoire ranges anywhere from classical to jazz to gospel to Disney music. A lot of our kiddos love Disney music, so we can't really watch Disney repertoire. But the heart of Heart for Music is love. It's love for our neighbor and Mother Teresa is our patron saint because, as she served the poor, as the poor we seek to serve the most disabled and the disabled. And music is the vehicle to do that.

Speaker 2: 12:17

And we were most blessed when you came and you approached us to ask us for help with your first fundraiser and I still remember that day when you said, hey, we could get the Agrin Symphony and my crazy idea at that time was okay. All these kids can play music. They're all on digital instruments. They'll never sound out of tune. Can we have them play with professional musicians? And I was knocking on the door of the ASO and the Cleveland Symphony and both doors were locked initially and you were so kind to help me get a contact over the ASO and we managed to get the door open and they actually sent out a quartet to play with us on that day of the gala, which was wonderful and we had just. It was just and we played a bunch of songs for Indian Picanadi to Ode Joy with them and it was really wonderful for me to see that ASO quartet play with the kids and they sounded beautiful. It was like and there was very minimal rehearsal with them for them to be the birthdays, and I remember telling the Agrin Symphony quartet was that they knew all the songs, they just followed the chords. There's no actual music and they improvised and they played beautiful. And since that time now they played with us on several occasions, the most recent of which was over at the Summit Arts Space where Heather Meager hosted us, and we played with them on August 5th, that Sunday, and that was a lovely, lovely performance that we the last one that we had.

Speaker 2: 14:03

So now the goal we've been steadily growing in terms of the population that we're reaching, so it's no longer now just simply children, teens and adults with organic disabilities, say with autism and several palsy or any other organic disabilities. We now have children who have been involved with an accident or life circumstances that just drastically reduced their ability to function in life. And one of our favorite musicians is a girl named Jurnee, and Jurnee was a happy, normal child until about, maybe about a year ago when she was involved in a horrific car accident which unfortunately claimed the lives of her parents. But she ended up being extremely disabled and had a massive traumatic injury. And her mother, cynthia, found our organization and saw that we had a group over in St Bernard, which is right next to the Ronald McDonald Charity Houses, which is where they are, and so she brought Jurnee over and Jurnee just lit up and she could speak while she was just kicking around, and so it was like that's great.

Speaker 2: 15:21

So we have been privileged to start reaching out and exploring those sort of populations, and the goal for hearts of music is to truly try to reach every disability, not just the ones that are, say, with Downs or Autism? But can we include those at the other end of the life spectrum, so those that are older, those in the 80s and 90s? And I find, at least in my experience, that those adults who have special needs and, combined with their old age, the system is less and less able to handle it and after a certain point, like, say, about 40 or 50, the bottom seems to drop out. For things that they're able to do, they're seen less and less useful and then on their side they have it running in their heads oh, I'm getting older, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast last night, I can barely lift my hand to lift a fork, to bring food to my mouth, and so they think there's less and less things for them to do.

Speaker 2: 16:36

And then at the other part of hospice care, where you have people that are bed-read and at the end of the life but they can still make music, and I wanted to see whether can we include that particular population to serve, so to be able to serve from the beginnings of life all the way to the end of life, and have them come together under one roof to perform music. And we've been blessed to be able to partner with the Akron Symphony to bring that about so that they can actually play with regular musicians. And I'll never forget our first gala, and we have a joke going around with us that most nonprofits, such as yourself and others, usually hold the first gala the first day of life. We held our 60 years on the back, but we packed the Akron Civic Theater with over 170 people and we got to have the lovely voices of the Summit Carl's Society who came to join, who alone does their children's choir, to sing with us and the Akron Symphony quartet and we could see everybody under one roof just performing music together. And so for me that was wonderful.

Speaker 2: 17:57

We had about, I think, believe we had about 25 kids and adults for our Hearts for Music musicians reaching from ages 60 years old and all the way to 70. And on the older adults we had seniors who were blind and deaf and on the younger end we had Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism. So that gala was really nice because that night, as far as we know, that has never been done before On a scale and scope. It has never been done before If you have, like I said, ensembles that do try to include disabilities, playing actual acoustic instruments or adaptive instruments, but things still run into the problem where there's still exclusions, and I wanted there to be as little as possible, little to no exclusions for that. And it was wonderful. We played the Hough Nile set and right now we have a range of about oh gosh 30, 40 songs that we can dip into our hat. So it's been a wonderful, wonderful journey. We've made many friends and partners along the way.

Speaker 2: 19:18

So your wonderful organization, voices of a Voices that advocates for mental illness, we have made friends with the Akron Symphony, the Summer Carl Society, the Summit Art Space, and we are looking now to have our roots firmly planted in Summit County and beyond.

Speaker 2: 19:38

So, in a nutshell, that's what Hearts for Music is. It's using music to spread the love and joy and acceptance of our neighbor, to love our neighbor the way Christ taught us, to love it, and use music as a vehicle to touch every heart. And we are living now in an age of where the word inclusion is a big thing, is inclusion all the time, and we wanted the inclusion to be to the extreme limit and we are so grateful, especially for the Akron Symphony. That said, we want to open our doors to those with special needs. We want to be able to include everybody as far as possible in the joy of creating, performing and appreciating music, and the Akron Symphony with Paul Jarrett, arzela Matheson and all the other lovely people like so, have been just absolutely wonderfully supportive of all that we're doing. So we're looking to, especially with 2024, wonderful things that happened with them.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Yeah, and later this week you will be playing for the Mayor of Akron.

Speaker 2: 20:52

Yep, yes, we will January 6th. So we were very blessed when we performed with the Akron Symphony at the Summit Art Space on August 5th and Mayor Shemaas. I sent out an email to Mayor Shemaas asking him hey, if you're in the area, come on by, and he brought his family along to see us and so that was wonderful because he got to see what we can do, what we are able to do and the potential for it. So he asked us to perform for his wearing and summering on Saturday, january 6th and we are very, very excited to be able to do that and that, I believe, is at 1 pm and I that will be Livestream, so there will be links to being able to view our performance on the by a live stream on YouTube and other social media platforms.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Yeah, that's, that's awesome. I remember, at the beginning of Learning to to know you and the work that you do, maybe on the I believe it's on the website and I think it caught my eye was in in your About how you wanted to bring everybody, any type of disability, to be able to play music, that there was a you're at a performance and there was a little girl with with her family and she whispered or Stead to her parents. You know, like you know, about the performers on stage I'm going to do that someday and and then the parents kind of just like the look of like yeah, like I don't know if, like that, that's gonna be possible in the sea, basically taking that Mindset of like okay, we need to make it happen. Yeah, and whether you're a gal is in your one, five, six, seven, doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 22:59

You're touching your reach and, yeah, populations here at Summit County in Northeast Ohio You've just expanded recently to the state of Pennsylvania. Yes, and you, you've also. Your parents live in Singapore and you're able to Take, take a few iPads over there to Get get that gone. Can you speak a little bit about just that growth mentality and how awesome yeah so and that was, and what you spoke about, the, about parents and their children.

Speaker 2: 23:30

A lot of parents, illogical disease, a Taylor Swift concert or a symphony and a Lot of their kids with disabilities would be like. That is so awesome. I want to be just like that. And yeah, in the back of the head the parents are going. That's great, my darling, we are. It's a wonderful idea. But the back of the head they're going. It will never happen. And hearts.

Speaker 2: 23:52

Music was designed to make that happen, to be able to Get them the opportunity to perform on stage. And so, that being said to, one of the things I tell People all around that I meet is that these kids are not circus animals. They kids with disabilities that they're playing, that are playing music. They're not circus animals. They're not People or creatures that we teach tricks to and we just show off in front of them. We exist to bring them dignity through music, to give them that opportunity to be able to perform in a way that's never be able, to unite to them, to create new friendships that otherwise, I said, would have never happened. We have friendships that have formed between four-year-old kiddos and future with 80 old, alzheimer's in wheelchairs, and those friendships. Before that would have never have happened because, yeah, they were no reason to to visit them, and especially those in nursing home.

Speaker 2: 24:56

It's very rare that you get People special needs visiting other people special needs and different so we wanted to try and bring that together and we were very blessed this summer to start a group in Pennsylvania, specifically Allentown, in Walsh, nexville and Allentown and Jackie Bucks and Maddie are Reached out to me over there and they said we saw your program online and we would like to try and see whether we could transplant that idea over there. And God bless their hearts, they did, and so we have a group in Pennsylvania. So we're starting to expand beyond Ohio and we my parents live in Singapore and when I went to visit them over the summer, I brought a couple of iPads over to see if we could start something similar and and the response over there was wonderful. So we're slowly looking at, you know, bringing that program to Everywhere and, as pinkie and the brain Love to say, we look to take over the world.

Speaker 1: 25:59

Over the world.

Speaker 2: 25:59

That's my bed, but it's been a wonderful period of growth For here locally. We have received a tremendous amount of support from Summit County Organized agents like Summit Art Space, summit DD, nicole are Nicole Mullet and gang over at Arts Now have been Wonderful supporters of us. So we're like well looked like Akron in some space will be where we will start planting roots and growing our trees and growing from there and, with Mayor Shamas and and his wonderful city of Akron lending a hand, we're looking to Grow and use Akron as our base to spread that love of music inclusivity to Everyone.

Speaker 1: 26:50

So we're very, very, very, very excited for all the new things that are starting to happen and For that person, that individual that's listening and watching the this episode, help give them maybe a word of wisdom of you might see something and think it's not possible and that, with enough thought and planning and Meeting people along the way, how that impossible Can be possible and not to give up on yourself right and that's our motto.

Speaker 2: 27:31

Our motto is transforming disabilities into abilities. And I myself and deaf, so I Lost my hearing when I was, when I was a teen, in my left side and About a year ago my right side, when completely caput in me. So it was quite this surreal experience one day just waking up and not hearing anything. And you know it's really bad when a fire engine sneaks up you and you can't hear any sound. So it's, it's been quite the rollercoaster for year for my poor ears and I'm Very, very blessed to be the keyboardist for first snow yes, which is a wonderful Tribute to all your holiday rock favorite musics, and we perform every year around this Christmas, around the Christmas season, and First snow has been wonderfully gracious in Having me as one of their two keyboardists on there, despite the fact that I'm deaf and I can't hear anything. So and For me, being deaf, which is a hidden disability, has enabled me to really appreciate and understand those who have hidden disabilities, because a lot of the time you don't reckon, you don't see it's not like gown syndrome, which has a very overt physical manifestation. People who have mental illness, you know, don't have that hidden disability in them. So it's made me more aware of those hidden disabilities. And it again it goes down to where you don't judge your neighbor, you accept them as they are and hearts, music enables, aims, to create that environment where you close your eyes and you just hear music.

Speaker 2: 29:29

I hope someday to have our performances where we give everybody blindfolds, we just blindfold them, I just have them, just listen to music and then lift the eye, you know, at the end of the form, they lift off the blindfolds and they see, oh, that person is, you know, missing toes, missing fingers. You know we have. And it's not just the disabled, the physically disabled, but also the emotionally disabled. So think war orphans, you know, for the, especially those that involved in wars. Can we reach out to them? Because Everyone has a disability, there is no one that does not have the disability. We want to try and collide all those molds as much as possible and partner with, with national symphonies, to raise awareness and inclusivity, to really bring inclusivity to the forefront. And With the Acro Symphony has been a wonderful stepping stone for us to demonstrate to the world that, hey, these kids and adults who can't read a lick of music, who can't play an instrument, can actually perform alongside Professional musicians and create something that's beautiful. And I often tell people, yes, they'll make mistakes, we don't care. Music, you know, and I'll never forget Two of my I'll be loved hearts, music musicians, elizabeth and Kimberley, who I've been their music therapist for a good number of years and and when I first started teaching them music they were born deaf and they had no speech therapy for a good number of years.

Speaker 2: 31:20

So a for large, for Majority of the years, their speech was very flat, very gray, and when I first started teaching them the concept of music and music, everything those music related, trying to explain music to them was often like telling a blind man what the color blue was, who has never seen the color blue. And Fast forward, you know good bunch of years. They now play the cello and the violin. Because they give you the bright brations, they are able to tell pitch, whether it's flat at sharp. But the most important thing is they love what they're doing. See the joy, the faces of the play. And when they played for O'gala with, with, with the Akron Symphony and the Summit Carl Society. And I remember Steve coming up.

Speaker 2: 32:10

Steve Austro's the principal violinist For the Akron Symphony and he's got a wonderful, generous heart. God bless that man. He walked up to and played Nick's right next, right next to Kim, to Kimberly and Elizabeth, and I Remember Kimberly and Elizabeth running up to the mom post show and saying I Feel like a musician. When he played next to me I felt like a musician and so that idea was born in the head, in my crazy little head. Can we embed those children in an orchestra?

Speaker 2: 32:47

And so one of the gold down the road is to actually make them an actual orchestra format and to dovetail the kids in, you know, with with A symphony of that caliber, a large ensemble, but not where they're actually separate, they're mixed, they're into mix together. So hopefully we'll bring that dream about alive sometime in the near future. But having the Summit, carl Society, kids and the ASO coming together for the first time ever, I can tell for sure that that was the first time ever that we had professional musicians play alongside kids with disabilities. Seeing that, can I make that on a bigger scale? Can we now include, say, an entire symphony or an entire choir and drop them all on one group playing together? So that's one of my crazy dreams to play, to realize before I die.

Speaker 1: 33:59

I mean well on your way, and not only the thoughts and how the individuals that are in your orchestra are feeling, but you, an individual that started this movement. How does it make you feel when these interactions are taking place? The music's being played, the smiles, the laughter, the hugs, just that warmth of a professional musician playing with me. How does all that make you emotionally feel?

Speaker 2: 34:40

It gives me, first and foremost, hope, great hope and great like to see like you know, if you look at the way things are being able to bring people together that otherwise would never all of the during me to see those friendships develop. It brings me great hope and a great sense of joy and I am very, very, very blessed to have a wonderful core group of board members that have come across and volunteers and the parents and the families who shuttle their kids back and forth. So I feel great sense of gratitude to people having me, who have been, who have helped me bring this about from five, six kiddos in the basement of Hiltop Church too, playing at the Akron Civic Theater. And a small little secret there is a small, small possibility we may be going to Rome to play in St Peter's Square. That's right. The Vatican has declared 2025 a Jubilee year and part of that year in April is dedicated specifically towards persons with disabilities.

Speaker 2: 35:57

So one day I just sat down and shot off a crazy email saying hey, I hear you're having this week of week or two of celebrating people with disabilities over in Rome. Can we come and crash St Peter's Square and play for you all? And they actually wrote back and said we think it's an intriguing idea. So we asked for prayers that that might happen. So we are asking for help and donations to help us do Rome 2025 in April. So it's still. It's a small possibility, but that possibly keeps getting a little bit bigger. But the idea now is can we bring that to all parts of the world? We've managed to bring it successfully to Pennsylvania and we're looking to grow and plant hearts for music group in much of Northeast Ohio and everywhere and anywhere, and then bring that, bring that group. You know all those people playing under one roof together, under one theater, and I think it will be just amazing.

Speaker 1: 37:08

Yeah, and I I mean, it sounds like you had a dream at some point. That dream started in the basement in the hilltop church and you're just going, one day at a time, one performance, one interaction, to do that, and I think that's inspiring to me, who is also dreaming and trying to do things that other people and organizations might say, well, that's a that's a wild idea to do, that. That'd be nice if you could do it. But is it? Is it really possible? Yeah, and it's possible, and it is.

Speaker 2: 37:50

Yeah, and the big thing, like I told you at the beginning, is I didn't want these kids to be circus animals. They're not circuses out, they're not. We're not training them sometimes you and then just display out to the world and collecting money for their tricks. I wanted them to be actually actively engaged in the community. I wanted them to go out. Even regardless of the age and disability issue I can still be useful. It's about. It's about increasing the self confidence, the self esteem, the self worth and showing the entire world we can still do this, even at our last moments of life. We can still do this even though we can barely lift a finger. We can still do something that's valuable. So one of the things so it's a community orchestra, so it's not just built to entertain I wanted them to go out and do something useful.

Speaker 2: 38:39

So this past year we were overjoyed when we got asked to do a wedding.

Speaker 2: 38:45

We got asked to come out to do a wedding and mentor and perform, and for some of these musicians who have never in their lives been invited to a wedding, that was a big deal, and so we went out and so I told them look, we've gone and we made somebody's special day more special, and so the orchestra exists not just simply to perform for sheer entertainment.

Speaker 2: 39:11

We want there to be a purpose. Okay, can we perform not just for entertainment, but can we impact somebody's life so that bride and groom that we played for that day was made much more blessed by our orchestra being there and playing for them? So, yeah, we can play, and we've been in us to do another wedding for 2024. And that will be in Kyoko Falls, I believe, sometime in September. So we're very excited to do that. So shout out to all your listeners If you guys have a wedding or any other special events. The kids would love to play, and it's about giving them opportunities to perform in the community, to interact in the community, then in the way that's not been ever done before anywhere.

Speaker 1: 40:08

And that's so awesome because you're in a sense an inventor in the way you're bringing kind of the chemistry together, the instruments and the iPads and the sound, and it's just remarkable that what you're doing hasn't been done before. So you're a real trailblazer when it comes to the work and I think you know church and the higher power. Having a little bit of help hasn't hurt that we as humans we can do so much physically, mentally, physically, mentally. But then when we bring a higher power into the fold that that really might jumpstart or take a rocket and take us way higher, closer to that dream, that goal, than we ever thought we could do by ourselves.

Speaker 2: 41:15

Right, and that was also the reason I deliberately made it a 501c3, why we are a non-profit. We exist to serve the community and, as I like to tell people, we are professional beggars and we rely on the charity, compassion. But we exist not just to serve. We exist to serve the kids and adults with special needs and disabilities, and other organizations such as ourselves expand Because, in the end, we are all one big, giant family and we help each other, and we should be there for each other. So I'm very, very glad that we received a 501c3 and we received it really fast too, so that was wonderful. But I was so happy when we received that status and where we're techs exempt, and so we encourage everybody. There are many organizations such as yourselves that do absolutely wonderful work, and I encourage everybody that's listening to donate to your wonderful organization and if you have any spare change, just throw it out, throw it away and to come to our performances whenever we host them.

Speaker 2: 42:36

So we're slowly expanding in 2023, it was a wonderful year of growth and 2024 now looks to be more exciting with things that we can do. We have a little more money in the kitty. We have made more friends and partners, so we now have the ability to do things that are actually at least in my head doable. So we just take over the world and give that joy and love of music to everyone with a disability and, like I said, with very few exceptions, we tried to include everybody. The only caveat I tell parents is maybe there's some of you loved ones who may have aggressive, unpredictable behaviors. They can still participate. We live in a wireless world and I've got 20 foot court, so we always try to find a way for them to be able to participate as much as possible. But I'm very glad and ecstatic to see where it's gone and where it's going, and so I'm very, very hopeful and grateful to all the love and support that we've received.

Speaker 1: 43:48

Yeah, I mean, it's just. I mean as we're I mean all the conversations, the meetings we've had just constantly more and more impressed with just I feel like your mind and my mind were similarly on kind of parallel planes of when an opportunity comes along, you try it, you give it a shot, that there could be the opportunity that fails, or it might do well, or it might take a little bit longer time, but give it a shot and that's all we can really ask on anything from a personal relationship to organization to bringing in everybody together, regardless whether it's a you can see the disability or not.

Speaker 1: 44:40

The one thing that kind of brings I think everybody together is music. So that's how I think things are really moving as well, especially with you touching the end of life care as well, the amount of not a doctor or surgeon but the hearing is out. That's one of the last senses that kind of goes, and so it's huge deal with what you're doing and others in that field to play music at that time, to have that individual feel at peace, right and the other unique thing about the orchestra and this comes from my hospice work too it's not just treating the patient or the person in front of you, it's about the family.

Speaker 2: 45:27

So when I went in hospice it wasn't just sitting by that loved one who was actively dying and playing them songs. I wanted the family to come in and we play and we sing together. So in our orchestra performances I encourage the family, like the parents, like a father or mother, to sit with the child as they're performing, to play with them. So it's not just okay, we're just distance and there's that symbolic or physical distancing. I wanted them to be engaged in part of their lives. It's the same thing when I do my one-on-one clinical work and I do it in all their homes. So I don't have an office, so I will go to the child's home and do my work there and the wonderful thing is if the child has a favorite book or favorite toy, they can just run up to the room and grab it and the parents are nearby and I can see let's be part of that session. So there's no closed door. It's not like you have a child that walks into a typical therapy room, closes the door and the parents outside reading the newspaper. I didn't want that. I wanted something that could integrate them, because it's not just the child I'm treating, it's the entire family. The family has to be part of that, and so I extend that concept to my orchestra, where I encourage the families to be part of their rehearsals and the sessions.

Speaker 2: 47:01

And in terms of format, we have multiple groups running throughout Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania, but every group learns exactly the same thing. Exactly the same thing, identical, and every group is made up about anywhere from four to about six kids or adults. And the cool thing is I never know who's going to show up, and that's a nature specialist. I truly never know who's going to show up, even on the day of the performance, because I can't tell you how many times I've had that.

Speaker 2: 47:33

Some parents call out to me five minutes before performance and say my kiddo's having a meltdown on the driveway. We're not going to make it, and that's the nature of that working with them. And so the orchestra is designed to be easy on parents. There is, we, don't tell them you have to be there or be there, be square. It's, it's we. I structured it, we tried to structure it in a way that invites the parents to try and attend when they can and give them that that leeway of case something's might go wrong. I mean I've had We've had performances where a kiddo might get up and just walk in this or walk it right, and everybody's still playing.

Speaker 2: 48:21

We're like he does this, you know, come back, yeah, and you look, come back and play, but they'll play music but. But there's that love and that acceptions of that disability, but every group learns exactly the same thing. There's that intimacy that comes up, having a small number of Of kids and adults and then participants. But also, too, I made it small for our sanity and it's a and so that the only time that you get really big is when we get together performances. Then we recall everybody again, and so it's wonderful to see like 25, 30 kids and adults of all ages, all disabilities, all in one roof and I can tell them okay, we're planning Canon and G and everybody knows exactly what to do. So we don't necessarily have to rehearse for performances. So we've designed it to make it as as as easy and convenient for parents and Guardians of those with with special needs to to to come, because it's it's a lot, and that's part of the reason why, in my daily clinical work, I chose to drive to the home, because when I found out 20 years ago how much of a pain in the butt it was to Get a child, and especially the day of winter in a snowstorm, load them up in the car, bundle them up, load them in the car, load the wheelchair and then drive 45 minutes an hour to the students and and so I chose to come to their homes so that they, okay, we don't have to stress about about, about bringing about fighting with the child to get them out the door, much less into a car this times. So I tried to extend that concept and our orchestra to make it as convenient as we can for families, so they just pick a location that is near us. So for in Summit County we have been blessed to have a home in St Bernard and beautiful St Bernard To rehearse and to hold rehearses there. So St Bernard is currently out hit quarters for all, serving all the summit deity.

Speaker 2: 50:22

We have a group running over in Brexville with the therapy and Wellness Center, which is a wonderful, wonderful Therapy Center for children and teens with disabilities, and Jacqueline McLermont and Hannah Mcflin, our director, is an owner's of the center and I can't say enough good things about them and the kindness and letting us use this center. We have another group running in mentor with the Deepwood Developmental Center and if you're in anywhere in Allen Towns in Pennsylvania, shinnexville, arie, come on by Jackie and and Debbie would be more than happy to To receive you. So we're looking to opening up new groups, exploring one in Booster and, but the goal idea is to have a group plotted and as much of Northeast Ohio as we can and when we get the performances, have them come to gate and, oh, when we do serve we are very blessed to have Medina County home and we serve a group of their older adults at Medina County home and Janet, george and Jane back of Access the Arts have been wonderful, collaborated as an partisan, helping us to open up that doors as well as AC passages. Amber Clark runs as the director and owner of AC passages and Watts would preserves adults with disabilities and they have to have been a wonderful group that we put rehearse with on those two sides. So Across the spectrum we have been able to serve all ages in all disabilities.

Speaker 2: 51:56

Wow.

Speaker 1: 51:58

So, wrapping things up, I am just curious how do you keep all this straight? Like there's so many Great things going on like it, it sounds like it could be chaotic in the mind a little bit. How, how do you keep that straight, or?

Speaker 2: 52:19

God's been very good. God's my awesome secretary, so, and Evan got my secretary on earth. I've been very blessed to have Connie edict, who is a board secretary, who has just been wonderful and helping keep things straight, and our treasurer is Audrey Jackson, my vice president is Rick Fredo and Jackie Bucks and PA is our PA board director. So I've been very blessed to be surrounded with a core team of wonderful, wonderful people To help me realize that particular vision. We have Carolyn Stevens, who's just recently Agreed to help us, especially in terms of fun, reason. We're so glad to rely on her and other people's Advice and wisdom to help us grow.

Speaker 2: 53:08

So that's how I keep straight. And my beloved family yeah, so my wife Kim and my children, kate and Chris, have been wonderful and and supporting this endeavor and bearing with me through all this craziness. So it's a little bit by a little bit. Every day I do hear a marble drop, I Do your horrible drop, and it's like, okay, I'm missing something what I do. So I Try to keep things straight with everybody's help around around me. But, thanks be to God, I've got wonderful help here, both in heaven and earth, to help me realize this and especially, your help.

Speaker 1: 53:54

Oh yeah, you're welcome, it's. It's just amazing the evolution just since I've known you with hearts for music and I Recommend anybody that's listening or watching to reach out to Mr Kitcherel chin about information About meetings, how to, how to get started the performances. I think the starting point would that be.

Speaker 2: 54:26

So far for currently, for our rehearsals we meet at the moment once a week. But now with we have been really blessed to have Haley Phillips, whom we're looking to try and bring on full-time to help us serve all summit DD and she is a wonderful young music therapist With absolute heart of gold and she's gonna help us expand in Summit County and we're hoping to have, right now as it stands, we have Sessions running on Saturdays and but we're hoping to expand that throughout the week and we encourage everybody to call us and we can open it up to multiple groups and multiple sessions and that they meet once a week for you to about an hour and hour and a half and Sessions usually begin in the middle, will begin in the middle of January, about the fifth, the second or third Saturday in January and they run to about the middle of May and then summer's reserved for performances and then we start the fun up back up in middle of September. We run into the middle of December and they can contact us at heart, wwwheartsformusicorg and we are a 501c3 nonprofit and we absolutely accept all donations In kind donations as well money to our donations, and all them go towards helping bring the joy of music to all people with disabilities, on infrastructure, and I will Add in closing that we are about fun. I wanted this to be fun for everybody and there is this lovely story that I relate to a lot of families of Really I forgot which group it was, but it was.

Speaker 2: 56:11

He was the lead guitarist for a very, very well-known rock group and he walked up to it was performance night and he says, as he relates, that he remembers walking up to the stage door, then stopping, looking at the stage door and then just turning around, getting by his car, driving away and everybody's like what happened to him and he's, he's, he relates that it's.

Speaker 2: 56:38

He just realized when he got to the, to the stage door, that For all the money and the fame that they had, it wasn't fun anymore. There was no joy in it whatsoever. And I want there, I want there to be for as long as this organization exists and as long as God allows it to exist, for it to be fun for both the people participating, the families are supporting, and for the people listening that is just engaged in that. We have a great time, mistakes and all and for them, for the kids, that is in the adults that we serve to be able to say like, yeah, I can't be on stage playing with, playing with other people who are just like me and Giving that joy and appreciates in music to those listening around. So our website again is hearts from music or g, and we are, as I said, of non charity, 501 sweet threads be gratefully accept donations. We also gratefully accept slave labor.

Speaker 1: 57:41

So Old tongue and cheek there. Great Well, mr Kitcherel chin, thank you again for joining us. Oh, the absolute joy and blessing, so rich with information, and I wish you and hearts for music and all your endeavors, nothing but the best, yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:01

We do have so for this january coming up. Big performances are january 6 at the a j thomas hall for may, or shema's malik's swearing at ceremony, which runs from we're performing at 1 pm. That will be televised. We are also performing at downtown at the akram public library On january 20th um, and that's a saturday and believe that's at 130 and we also will be having a second Gala and performance over the akram civic theater On may 7th and we are terribly, terribly grateful to howard par and the staff and the board directors over the akram civic for generously letting us Um invade that theater on may 7th and I'll be at 7 pm.

Speaker 1: 58:51

Great May 7th and we invite you, our listeners, our viewers, to, to check out the hearts for music dot org website, follow and join them on facebook to learn more about the organization, to participate to Uh, come to the performances to find the links for the, the live streams. And again, a big thank you to mr Kitchell chin for joining us today and a huge thank you to you, our listeners, our viewers, right here in summa county and across the world. So until next time. I am justin alan haze, the founder and executive director of voices for voices, and we hope that you have a good day and please be a voice for you or somebody in need.