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.
Flashback to 2018.
Our founder Molly went and visited refugee camps around the world and kept running into the same thing: kids with real musical talent and literally nothing to work with. No instruments. No teachers. No way in.
"That was the start of the idea of this program," she says.
She kept in touch with some kids she`d met at a refugee camp and when the pandemic hit (like everybody else), she figured out how to fulfill her mission over a screen. So she started teaching them online.
That`s really the whole origin story. Molly showing up for a group of kids she couldn`t stop thinking about. Today that`s grown into Novel Voices, connecting students in Africa and The Middle East with music teachers around the world.
Founding Day`s coming up on September 13 — full video`s in our bio if you want to hear Molly tell it herself.
#FlashbackFriday #NovelVoices #MusicHealsUs #Viola #FoundingDay
On Dec. 5, 2013, a shattered glass bowl paused Molly Carr`s career as a performing violist overnight.
After months of surgeries and uncertainty, Molly met Ruth — a woman in late-stage Alzheimer`s who hadn`t spoken in years.
She sat with her and held her hand in silence. Ruth began to speak.
Molly kept coming back. On her last day, she made a promise: she`d return and bring her viola to play for Ruth.
That promise became Project: Music Heals Us.
13 years later: countless memories. Stories shared. Unlikely connections built between musicians and the people who need them most.
Give in honor of Founding Day — link in bio.
#MusicAsCare #ProjectMusicHealsUs #FoundingDay #MusicHealsUs #Viola
Presence 🤝 Performance. 🎻
This is 50 seconds from a much longer story.
PMHU has been showing up at Sonoma County Jail for years through our Music For The Future program, and this fall, we`re going back for more.
@sonomasheriff
Music doesn`t stop at the gate.
#MusicForTheFuture #MusicHeals #PMHU #MusicAsCare #ArtsForHealing #ConnectionThroughMusic
Before our season begins, a little thank you and a little preview.
Music, Within Reach closed at more than $101,000! Double our goal, and the reason this fall is already starting off strong. Music For The Future composition residencies begin next month at Elmwood and Sonoma. Novel Voices lessons resume for our students across Africa and the Middle East. And Vital Sounds Initiative keeps bringing live concerts to patients who need them most.
And mark your calendars: September 13 is PMHU Founding Day — thirteen seasons in, and we can`t wait to share more.
Full update — link in bio.
#MusicHealsUs #FoundingDay #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsInHealthcare #ArtsForAll
We’re proud to share that our story has been published in The Ensemble, an international publication for the ensemble music education field.
The piece traces PMHU back to where it started: our founder Molly Carr, sitting in silence and holding the hand of Ruth, an Alzheimer’s patient who hadn’t spoken in years. Ruth began speaking again that day. That moment became a question we’re still trying to answer, what does it mean to actually be present with someone the system has decided it’s done with?
The article follows that question through hospital rooms with our Vital Sounds Initiative, through Reggie’s story at Jericho Project with Music For The Future, and through the young musicians reached by Novel Voices around the world.
Three programs. One belief. Attention changes everything.
Click the link in our bio to read the full story. 🎻
#MusicAsCare #VitalSoundsInitiative #MusicForTheFuture #ArtsInHealthcare #HumanConnection
24 hours left. 🎻
Molly has a special message + a reminder that every gift today is matched, dollar for dollar, by our board.
If you’ve been meaning to give, today’s the day. Link in bio. 🔗
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #PMHU
One year ago, we were in Nairobi. 🇰🇪
Our musicians spent a week alongside students from Ghetto Classics, our Novel Voices partner organization, teaching, learning, and performing side by side. One student later told us the residency was “one of a kind.” Another said it best: music is about connection, not perfection.
That’s what “within reach” means to us. Access. The chance for a young musician’s talent to actually meet the world.
6 days left in our campaign, and every gift right now is matched dollar-for-dollar. Help us bring more of this within reach.
Link in bio. 🔗
#MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #NovelVoices #PMHU
What does music in a hospital room actually sound like? 🎻
Sean, one of our Vital Sounds Initiative musicians, walks through how a session begins — starting with a simple question: how do you want to feel right now?
This is a simulated demo, made so you can see how this work actually unfolds.
Two weeks left in Music, Within Reach — and every gift is matched right now. Link in bio. 🎶
#PMHU #MusicHealsUs #MusicWithinReach #MusicAsCare #VitalSoundsInitiative
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
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.