Experience the Work
See how music transforms spaces, uplifts communities, and creates moments of connection where they’re needed most.
Project: Music Heals Us – Corey’s scene from “The Sound of Us”
PMHU in Kenya: Summer Residency 2025
PROJECT: MUSIC HEALS US
PMHU Moments
PMHU In Action
Follow the Journey
Stay connected and see our latest moments as they happen. Follow along as we continue to bring music into spaces that need it most.
Someone once told Sean Mulligan that when they hear a song they recognize, it’s like hearing themselves in the room.
For a lot of the people VSI musicians play for, it’s the first time they’ve felt that — reflected somewhere, without any judgment attached.
“As a performer, it’s very easy to think music is only for performance. Vital Sounds Initiative has really reminded me of the possibility of music as processing.”
That’s what Music, Within Reach is about. Link in bio to give before June 30.
🎶 #MusicWithinReach #VitalSoundsInitiative #MusicAsCare #MusicHealsUs #PMHU
When we launched Music, Within Reach on May 18, our goal was $50,000. In just over a week, you brought us to our goal.
A generous donor noticed — and doubled the match. Our board matching gift has more than doubled, from $12,500 to $30,000 — and we’ve raised our campaign goal to $75,000!
That means every dollar you give right now reaches twice as far.
To hospital rooms. To correctional facilities. To young musicians across three continents.
Music, Within Reach runs through June 30. The window is open — and now your gift can go even further.
Link in bio → pmhu.org/donate
#MusicWithinReach #MusicHealsUs #MusicAsCare #ArtsAndHealth #ProjectMusicHealsUs
It’s been a big season for Music For The Future in California — and we’re not done yet.
Since January, PMHU has completed residencies at five correctional facilities across the state:
🎵 Central California Women’s Facility — January
🎵 Santa Rita (Alameda County) — January
🎵 Vista Detention Facility — April
🎵 Pitchess Detention Center — April
🎵 La Entrada de Los Angeles — April
Each one followed the same model: a week-long in-person residency with a string quartet, followed by weeks of remote composition instruction. Students learned music theory, wrote original pieces for a string quartet, and worked toward something most of them never imagined — a celebration concert at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Friction Quartet performed that concert in March, premiering compositions by students from CCWF and Santa Rita. A second celebration concert is coming June 11 for students from Pitchess and La Entrada — and remote instruction is happening right now.
Last night, Dr. Jess Boykin and Dana Martin represented PMHU at SFCM’s Arts Leadership Institute panel “Healing Through Music,” alongside leaders from the SF Symphony, LA Phil, UCSF, and the Global Brain Health Institute.
As Dana shared: “We’re able to invite friends and family to see this achievement: That is the biggest moment for our students, to be able to share what they’re doing with their friends and family, and specifically their children.”
We’re proud to be rounding out this season — and already looking ahead to next year. But seasons like this don’t happen without support.
Thank you to our partners who make this work possible: @sfconservmusic, @frictionquartet, and @fivekeysschoolsandprograms — forces that are helping and supporting California’s communities in ways that matter deeply.
Music, Within Reach is live through June 30. Help us come back next season even stronger. Link in bio.
#MusicAsCare #ProjectMusicHealsUs #MusicForTheFuture #SFCM #ArtsLeadership
Four moments from inside Music For The Future residencies. Four windows into why this program exists.
🎵 Cellist Ian Maloney and violist James Preucil of the Dolphins Quartet playing a student’s original composition back to her
🎵 Ben Grow — conductor, PMHU teaching artist, and the person who has taught music theory and composition to dozens of MFTF students across multiple residencies.
🎵 Musicians Jeremy Klein, Julia-Hyunji Lee, and Michael Shofi making music with women navigating reentry through the Five Keys and MAP programs.
🎵 Dolphins Quartet members Isaac Park and Ian Maloney reviewing student compositions while James Preucil works one-on-one with a student in the background.
Support sustained, structured, creative work — because the people inside these residencies can feel the difference.
Our campaign Music, Within Reach is live through June 30. Your support keeps this work going.
To learn more visit the link in bio.
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #PMHU #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsLeadership
This is what music as care looks like — in three very different places.
A quartet teaching music theory inside a county jail in San Francisco. A violist performing live for patients navigating memory loss on Long Island. A teaching artist coaching a young ensemble in Nairobi from thousands of miles away.
Different settings. Same purpose: human connection through music.
Music, Within Reach is our campaign to keep this work going. Your support makes all three possible. Link in bio to support.
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #VitalSoundsInitiative #MusicForTheFuture #NovelVoices
There’s always a moment during our Music For The Future residencies when something shifts.
A person who walks in unsure.
They start to compose.
They write something real.
And then they say it out loud.
Kandice, a participant MFTF, described it this way:
“It’s one thing to listen to music. It’s another to really experience it. And when you experience it with people, in community — it’s powerful. And there’s a connection and a bond that I carry for a lifetime.”
That’s PMHU: Connection in the places where it’s hardest to come by.
Project: Music Heals Us operates in hospitals, correctional facilities, and under-resourced communities around the world. Three very different settings. One shared truth: when people are met with music, dignity, and attention, something shifts in them, and in the systems around them.
This month we launched Music, Within Reach; our campaign to sustain and grow this work across every setting. If this resonates with you, we’d be grateful for your support.
Donate Today: pmhu.org/donate
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #PMHU #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsAndHealth
Today we’re launching Music, Within Reach — our campaign to bring music to hospital rooms, correctional facilities, and classrooms in Kenya, Palestine, and Iraq.
From now through June 30, every gift supports live bedside concerts, music composition programs in partnership with San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and international music education for young musicians who wouldn’t otherwise have access.
Your gift helps music reach where it’s needed most. Link in bio.
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #PMHU
#ProjectMusicHealsUs
Spring at PMHU brings new opportunities for creativity, connection, and growth!
Over the next two months, we’ll be leading residencies at:
• Vista Detention Facility (Vista, CA)
• Pitchess Detention Center (Santa Clarita, CA)
• La Entrada (Los Angeles, CA)
• Lovelock Correctional Center (Lovelock, NV)
Each engagement includes an in-person residency, with some sites continuing into a multi-week creative process where participants develop original compositions alongside our Teaching Artists.
It’s a process that unfolds gradually—through collaboration, listening, and creative risk.
This week, we’re also heading to the San Quentin Film Festival—an event that continues to redefine what’s possible inside correctional spaces, bringing together currently and formerly incarcerated filmmakers in a setting built on shared experience and creative exchange.
We are grateful to be part of this broader ecosystem of artists and educators doing this work.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #ArtsInCorrections #CreativeJustice #MusicEducationMatters #SanQuentinFilmFestival
A beautiful milestone for our Novel Voices students in Kenya.
PMHU recently shipped 8 string instruments — 4 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos, all with bows and cases — for students to receive, explore, and begin playing together. This video captures that story from start to finish: packing, shipping, arrival, first reactions, and celebration.
We’re grateful to The String House in Rochester and Stephen Kanack for helping make this possible.
There is something powerful about seeing the full arc: what starts with boxes and labels becomes music, excitement, and shared possibility.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #NovelVoices #Kenya #StringInstruments #MusicHeals
From Kenya to you. 🌍🎻
Join us tomorrow, Saturday, March 14, for the PMHU Ensemble Recital, a special hour of music shared from Mukuru kwa Ruben, Kenya.
Featuring the talented young musician from our Novel Voices Kenya program!
🗓 Saturday, March 14
🕥 10:30 AM EDT / 5:30 PM Nairobi
📍 Ruben Centre, Oasis Room, Mukuru kwa Ruben
🔗 Livestream: Link in Bio
We hope you’ll tune in and celebrate this beautiful program with us.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #MusicHeals #LiveMusic #Kenya #ClassicalMusic
Some of the most meaningful outcomes of virtual music-making are also the most universal: familiarity, trust, responsiveness, and presence.
In Vital Sounds Initiative sessions, patients guide the experience through their requests, memories, and needs in the moment.
Care lives in the details: learning a patient’s preferences, recognizing a returning face, shaping the session around what someone needs that day.
The music matters. So does the consistency. So does the relationship.
Through Vital Sounds Initiative, artists bring more than performance into hospital rooms — they bring attentiveness, warmth, and a moment of humanity.
Thank you - Elena, Matthew, Jake and all of our VSI musicians for helping to bring artistry and beautiful music to hospital bedsides across the country each and every week. ❤️💙🎶🎻🎹
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #VitalSoundsInitiative #ArtsInMedicine #MusicHeals
Rehabilitation works best when it recognizes the whole person.
We’re grateful to the San Bernardino County Probation Department for highlighting Music for the Future at their M.A.P. site — a model that integrates supervision, treatment, education, workforce development, and community partnership.
For five days, participants write, compose, and perform original music.
What we see in real time is transformative:
Emotional regulation through expression.
Teamwork built through collaboration.
Identity reimagined through authorship.
Creative programming doesn’t replace structured services — it strengthens them.
Thank you to the San Bernardino County Probation Department and Five Keys Schools and Programs for their continued partnership and commitment to holistic rehabilitation.
Leaders like these are helping redefine change not as punishment alone, but as growth — expanding how we think about transformation, accountability, and redemption in our communities.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #MusicForTheFuture #RestorativeJustice #Rehabilitation #ArtsInCorrections
Inside Alameda County Santa Rita Jail, Music For The Future brought professional musicians into collaborative composition workshops with women who are incarcerated.
During this residency, members of the Friction Quartet sat side-by-side with participants — developing musical ideas, exploring structure, asking questions, and building original work together.
Thank you to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for helping us to capture these moments of concentration, creativity, connection, and community.
The work is vulnerable. It is reflective. It is transformative. And it happens one conversation, one note, one shared moment at a time.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsInCorrections #CreativeEducation
Last week at Juilliard, The Hill We Climb brought together an extraordinary group of performers, staff, and partners for an evening shaped by music, spoken word, and collective reflection.
This group photo—taken after the performance—captures some of the wonderful faces behind the PMHU’s work: the artists onstage, the team supporting them, and the shared intention to create programming that strengthens connection and makes room for honest emotion.
Grateful to everyone who performed, supported, attended, and helped carry the night.
Congratulations again to The Dolphins Quartet for being awarded the Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach!
#PMHU #ProjectMusicHealsUs #Juilliard #TheHillWeClimb #ArtsLeadership
What is The Hill We Climb Project?
Inspired by Amanda Gorman’s iconic poem, The Hill We Climb brings music, spoken word, and reflection together: a moment that asks us to listen more carefully and consider what it means to repair.
🗓️ Feb 16 | 7:30 PM
📍 Paul Hall at Juilliard (NYC)
🎤 Pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM (included with ticket)
Tickets / livestream info at the link in bio.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #TheHillWeClimb #Juilliard #ArtsForChange #HealingThroughMusic
Over the past few weeks, our teaching artists and partners have been creating space for composition, connection, and possibility—inside. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been moving us:
📸 Slide 1: Friction Quartet (Otis Harriel, Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor) + Julia Lee, alongside Jenn O’Brien (MFTF Program Coordinator) and MFTF students at Central California Women’s Facility.
🎧 Slide 2: Dana Martin on Prison Exposed—on music as a practice of healing, trust-building, and human dignity
💬 Slides 3–4: Participant reflections that say it better than we ever could
📝 Slide 5: A powerful feature on MFTF in Shaun Griffin’s A Writer’s World
Share this, listen/read via the link in bio, and help us keep this work growing.
Special thanks to @podcast_remedyproj for the feature and amplifying the voices of incarcerated people.
#ProjectMusicHealsUs #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsInCorrections #RestorativeJustice #HealingThroughMusic
Be Part of the Impact
Your support helps us bring live music to spaces where it can make a real difference. Join us in creating more moments like these.