Director’s Message: 1,000 shows, countless lives touched. It’s been a tremendous year. Heart & Soul topped the 1,000-show-per-year mark, serving over 25,000 isolated neighbors from Ogden to Spanish Fork.

Three years ago, Heart & Soul received a one-time gift that helped us expand our service area. And what do you know, it turns out residents outside of our comfortable bubble also crave music’s healing power.

Dear friends, family, board members, fellow musicians and our phenomenal funders, thank you all! It has been my great honor to lead Heart & Soul these past twenty-six years.

The other day, I did something I’ve never done before—I attended a Heart & Soul show.

I’ve played in a lot of Heart & Soul shows—about a hundred, over the years. I’ve lugged my upright bass to nursing homes and rehab facilities and even the State Prison, and I’ve had a great time doing it. Now I’m on the board of Heart & Soul, and I volunteered to write this letter. I thought it would be easy to tell you, from my own personal experience, about “the healing power of music.” But then I worried: what do I really know about it? I’ve read about it, and I’ve seen videos of practically vegetative patients coming to life with earphones on—but my own personal experience of Heart & Soul is that it’s fun. I’m up there propping up my big, awkward instrument, trying to play in tune, listening to my bandmates, trading smiles with the residents who’ve come to hear, and it’s a great time. Now, seriously, who’s going to donate money just so that I can have a great time Give Now-->

So I went to somebody else’s show.

 

What a riot. Our last performance at Canyon Rim Care Center through Heart & Soul was so full of joy and energy. All I could do beyond our collective singing was do nothing but smile.

I met Gene Sartain at Tenth East Senior Center, a facility that Heart & Soul performers visit regularly. He was accompanied by his Irish flute, a guitar, and a small, elderly dog named Rita who he had rescued. The three of us sat down, and surrounded by residents, we chatted about Heart & Soul, his travels, and what it means to give back.

Don Behrman, known to his music friends and Heart & Soul audiences as Dominoe, left this earthly home on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Barely 72, he left us way too soon.

Dominoe knew all the standards that our audiences love. He was our story-telling, rockin’ cowboy, Nashville star and sang songs by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Don Williams and Merle Haggard, and more.

Turning Point ends with another beautiful story in Heart and Soul, which brings healing to over 25,000 people per year with live music performances at domestic abuse shelters, psychiatric centers, and other isolated facilities across Utah.