This is a badge for the Spring 2021 SAC Fair.

This is a badge for the Fall 2021 SAC Fair.

Penn 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 organization’s main focus 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. The distinct elements of live performances offer an opportunity for interaction between patients and musicians, which in turn, enables patients to engage with and be stimulated by performances.
Anxious family members and friends often welcome a source of diversion to share with their loved ones, and music is often a preferred choice. Physicians and hospital staff alike may also require time for enjoyment and repose in their highly stressful schedules. Penn MINHUET actively meets these specific requirements of our healthcare community by organizing groups of Penn student musicians to perform live music in nursing homes, hospital wards, and at the bedsides of comatose or terminally ill patients. To increase outreach, our organization functions to link diverse musical/arts groups on campus and other establishments in West Philadelphia by arranging guest performances to benefit patients. While we do not expect to cure the physical illnesses of patients, we do try to facilitate the natural healing process.
MINHUET volunteers are given complete freedom in their performances and have the ability to select specific pieces or acts to showcase, which in turn will be coordinated with any requests of the healthcare facilities that we serve; if student volunteers would like song recommendations and extra sheet music, we can provide those as well. Volunteers can choose whether to perform solo repertoire or form a chamber group that Penn MINHUET can assemble upon request. Both solo and group performances will be scheduled individually with our healthcare partners to provide members and patients with flexibility.

MINHUET at the University of Pennsylvania Application

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MINHUET at the University of Pennsylvania Application

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