News > Students, Faculty + Alumni
Back to News Browse
Students, Faculty + Alumni

Wall Street Journal spotlights Musicorps

When Arthur Bloom '86BA, '93MM met with a veteran at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007, he didn't know that the meeting would lead to a big idea.

As the Wall Street Journal writes:

When Mr. Bloom learned the veteran had been a drummer, he suggested the man resume playing, despite having lost one leg due to an injury sustained in Iraq. Over the course of setting up electronic drums for the veteran, and as they experimented together with different prosthetics, Mr. Bloom realized there was a dire need for a revolutionary music program at the medical center.

That revolutionary music program came into being as Musicorps, with funding from the Yale School of Music's alumniVentures program, foundations such as the Augustine Foundation and the Center for Health Transformation, individuals, and other sources.

The WSJ continues:

Musicorps' unconventional approach is to engage veterans in high-level musical creation, assisted by working musicians. Goals vary from veteran to veteran. One wants to be professional musician, while another wants to learn the National Anthem on the guitar to play at a baseball game. Any kind of music is welcome, from rock to classical. Genres have included rap, death metal and once even Italian opera.

Read the rest of the article HERE.