[K-Women Talk] Resonance Deepens When Shared

Hoping That Volunteer Performances
Become a Source of Energy for Patients, Caregivers, and Medical Staff Alike

"The Sympathy Concert will begin shortly."

As the last Friday lunchtime of June, with intermittent monsoon rains, began, an announcement signaling the start of the performance I was participating in started playing through the hospital speakers. After finishing lunch, patients and their caregivers admitted to the hospital began filling the seats in the hospital’s performance hall one by one. Having completed my outpatient appointment, I also headed to the concert hall.

This was my second stage performance since my debut at the Prugio Art Hall in mid-April. Sitting down in a chair to perform at a distance where I could hear the audience’s breathing made me more nervous than the first stage. The tension was incomparable to when I had comfortably enjoyed many concerts from the audience seats before.

After the host’s introductory greeting, I took a breath for the first performance. How much time had passed? The performance of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 “Path?tique,” 2nd movement, ended safely. My breathing, which had quickened from nervousness, gradually stabilized with the warm applause sent from the audience. The moment I stepped down from the stage and sat in the audience, I thought the intensity of nervousness seemed inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the audience.

After the performance, I sat in the very back row of the audience and cheered on my fellow performers with vigorous applause. A patient who had stood throughout the 40-minute performance from start to finish caught my eye. I offered an empty seat and encouraged them to sit down. They said that since only a few days had passed after surgery, they could not sit and standing was less uncomfortable. That patient stayed in their seat until the concert ended, connected to an injection and a drainage tube.

"I usually love music so much that I thought I would regret missing this concert, so I came down." At that moment, the meaning of the performance I had prepared with all my heart felt newly significant. A wave of gratitude for that patient, who made me realize why volunteer performances are necessary, washed over me.

My connection with Inobi, an arts volunteer organization that holds performances for those culturally marginalized such as patients, people with disabilities, and the elderly, has surpassed ten years. Through many big and small connections, we deliver small but precious comfort through music. Over the past three years, due to the unforeseen difficulties of COVID-19, we replaced visiting concerts with video concerts. In-person concerts and video concerts are certainly different. I also newly learned that this performance, meeting an audience in need of comfort, is even more precious.

My childhood friend from Yewon School who came bearing flowers to watch this performance, the little audience member who bravely asked to take a photo with me because my dress was pretty, and the senior and junior medical staff who stopped on their busy way to listen attentively?all will remain precious memories.

Among the flowers I received on the day of the concert, one stem was bent and seemed about to break, so I wrapped it with tape to secure it. While the other flowers with many leaves all withered, that one remained fresh until the very end. I thought that the visiting concert might be like an umbrella shielding patients and caregivers who have encountered unexpected life showers from the monsoon rain.

Sharing music together, I believe that a little attention and willingly opening our hearts and spending time together can be a great strength on our weary journey. I hope it can be a support to lean on and endure even the storms that may come at any time, and that it can deliver deep and lasting emotion and energy to the patients. I must hurry to prepare the pieces for the next performance.

Suyeon Ham, Professor, Department of Radiology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital