MINHUET is a community service student group at the University of Pennsylvania that brings live performances from Penn’s music and arts community into West Philadelphia’s nursing homes and hospitals. Our objective is to construct meaningful and positive relationships between Penn students and the elderly or ill through the power of music.
Patients in nursing homes and hospitals have to stave off loneliness, displacement, and isolation, all while enduring substantial distress. Current research demonstrates that live music meets some of their many needs by providing not only sources of diversion and entertainment but also feelings of texture, time, and place — forms of self-awareness that are beneficial therapeutically.
MINHUET volunteers are given complete freedom in their performances, which in turn will be coordinated with any requests of the healthcare facilities we serve; Volunteers can choose to perform solo repertoire or form a chamber group upon request.