Singing for the Stars
The Indian Association of Palliative Care and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy – Nirvana, began collaborating in January, 2022, to present the palliative care community with a series of free virtual evening of harmonies known as ‘Singing for the Stars’.
This initiative aims to provide our ‘Stars’, our palliative patients and their caregivers, and our healthcare professionals, each of who is a star in themselves, with free virtual musical evenings via Zoom, to help them unwind, relax, and to of course bring a smile on everyone’s face who has tuned in.
The first concert was presented on Tuesday, 4th January, 2022, in which Dr. Shankar Mahadevan shared a pre-recorded audio message to the palliative care community, to highlight the power of music to heal and soothe people.
Since it’s inception, palliative care patients and their caregivers from across the country, have been participating in these musical events by singing along, dancing along and cheering for one another, all while forgetting their pain and other distressing symptoms, even if it is only for a few hours. It been shared that for some palliative patients, participating in this initiative has been the last musical concert that they attended.
Healthcare professionals from Kumbakonam to Kashmir, and from Gujarat to Manipur, have also been tuning in to catch a break from their hectic and stressful schedules.
Popular demand has prompted for these virtual concerts to be presented twice a month since July 2022; once as a general program to cater to the national multi-lingual audience, and the second time as a program dedicated to specific States / Zones to cater to specific regional languages.
We invite you to participate in our ‘Singing for the Stars’ musical concerts, to relax, unwind and cherish music along with your patients and their caregivers.
Who can join us:
Anyone who enjoys music! The more the merrier.
Cost of the session:
Free
How to participate in the session:
To receive the event login credentials, please drop us an email at assistant.nio.iapc@gmail.com along with your name, the name of your institute (if any), your mobile number, and with an expression of interest to participate.
NOTE: If you know of a palliative patient / caregiver / healthcare professional who enjoys singing and wants to sing in this program, please send us an email on assistant.nio.iapc@gmail.com, along with your name and mobile number to facilitate this participation.
Pre-requirements / infrastructure requirement for institutions to participate:
- Access to decently good and stable internet connectivity
- Access to a hall / a ward / a common area etc. with speakers and a screen to project the musical event for patients and caregivers
Click here to watch recordings from the sessions conducted thus far. Do feel free to share it / play it for your patients.
The IAPC is grateful and is indebted to the Shankar Mahadevan Academy – Nirvana, for offering their support and commitment towards this project.