No, this is not a post about wooly mammoth ivory vs. cow bone.
On Tuesday, March 20th, I'll be doing my first solo concert in over
three years.
The concert program is, as it says at the site, a celebration of
Bach's birthday, and more.
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e5nmzzpxdc213f6d&llr=yhzk8odab
Long story. Some of you may remember some posts a while back about a
close call I had, medically speaking, in July 2009 and how it led to
my becoming a musician in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at
Beth Israel Medical Center here in NY.
Immediately after major surgery I went into shock. During the final
minute of the 3-minute gurney ride from the OR to the SICU I was
clinically dead. Heart stopped, no respiration, no blood pressure.
But I was in the right place at the right time. This is one of the
best SICUs in the world. A minute after arriving in the unit they'd
brought me back. However, I was very critically ill and was
immediately put into a medically induced coma. I was out for six
days.
During the first three days no one thought I would survive. In the
middle of the third day I started checking out. Vital signs began to
plummet. My wife, Wendy, knew something had to happen pronto or it
would be all over. Knowing how much I loved music, and especially
Bach, she asked permission to put my iPod in and clicked on the St.
Matthew Passion. Thirty minutes later I stabilized and never
regressed.
“Nothing activates the brain so extensively as music” - Dr. Oliver
Sacks.
(The opening piece on the concert program I'll be doing on the 20th is
"Befiehl du deine Wege/Entrust Thy Way" from the St. Matthew Passion.)
However, there had been no oxygen to my brain during those two minutes
of cardiac arrest. Permanent brain damage usually starts at about 3
minutes, but can happen sooner.
It wasn't until I got home and started playing the guitar - which I
did about 30 seconds after I walked into the apartment - that the
first signs of damage became apparent. Of all things, it manifested
in the area that is involved in music making. In the next few weeks I
discovered that I'd lost most of the 10+ hours of music I had
memorized. About 25 minutes remained, all of it learned before the
age of 20. And I had also lost the ability to memorize music. I
couldn't restore what was gone.
However, I could play, and I could read. For 18 months I tried every
trick in the book to memorize music but nothing worked and I gave
up.
In January 2010, 5 months after my surgery, I returned to the SICU as
a musician. At first it was just to give thanks, but it soon became
much more that. I am there 3 days/week, 90 minutes/session; just
passed the 500 hours mark. I was accepted from day one by the staff
for the medical value that the music added. I've helped speed the
healing of many critically ill patients and the doctors have said that
in several cases I helped save a life. As my life was saved by
music.
Playing in a SICU is music making that requires the utmost
concentration.
Soon after starting in the SICU I landed a steady engagement, every
Wednesday and Friday, at a wonderful little bistro on the Upper West
Side called Alouette, near where I live. The neighborhood is home to
many music and theater people - I play often for artists whose
recordings I listen to. Lots of concentration needed here as well.
But, I'd given up on ever playing a concert from memory again.
I had no idea that the damage was being repaired. In July 2011 there
was a patient I played for in the SICU who is one of the world's
leading authorities on the music of George Gershwin. I felt I HAD to
play at least one Gershwin tune from memory for her! What once would
have taken about 30 minutes took 2 weeks but I was able to memorize
Embraceable You. Even so, I didn't realize yet that something was
happening.
In September I met Levon Helm (former singer/drummer of The Band,
etc.). We were both recipients of the Wonderful World award given
annually by the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine. Levon
invited me to be his guest artist, 10 days later, at the Midnight
Ramble he does every Saturday night in Woodstock, NY. I played a 50-
minute solo set to open the show. (Wendy's a singer/guitarist and
joined me for two songs.)
I decided to try and memorize Summertime to go with Embraceable You.
It took all 10 days. I was working on it in the green room right up
to showtime. Made it just in time. And the evening was a peak
experience for me and my friends; Levon's 11-piece band is fantastic.
I few days later I had a feeling something had happened. I sat down
with my favorite piece, the BWV 1001 fugue. Never thought I'd play it
from memory again. 55 minutes later it was completely memorized.
In laymen's terms: because I kept playing, aided by being in such
intense performance environments 5 times a week, the music making area
of my brain re-wired. And, startling to me especially at first, I had
better skills than before, attested to by several musician friends I'd
known for a long time that came by to listen. I could hear more,
internally and externally, and "think musically" faster.
The plasticity of the brain is quite amazing. A friend, a surgeon who
did a fellowship in neurosurgery, explained what had happened (later
confirmed by other doctors). When I got home from the hospital, in
those first painful weeks, my brain did a "workaround", connecting to
other areas so I could play and read. When the repaired network was
finally ready, the workaround wasn't discarded, it was blended in with
the new pathways.
It all took a little over two years. I didn't realize all that time
that I was doing my own rehabilitation therapy.
The rewiring added to the workaround wound up giving me Music Brain
2.0. Faster processor and more RAM! Yes, the plasticity of the brain
is quite amazing.
So, on March 20th I'll do something I thought I'd never do again; play
a full concert from memory. That's if, of course, I can remember to
get on the subway and head downtown that night.
A lot of people suffer brain trauma - from surgery, illness,
accidents, wounds, etc. Music therapy was a huge factor in the
successful recovery of Gabby Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman that
was shot in the head last year. As Dr. Sacks said, nothing activates
the brain so extensively as music.
I hope that anyone reading this, that has suffered damage or knows
someone that has, will move forward knowing that if you make the
effort, and have the patience, miracles can happen.
Andrew
P.S. No, I do NOT recommend cardiac arrest as a means of improving
neurological function.