Echoes of Kindness: Anabel’s Senior Project Benefits Music Therapy at UCSF

Anabel stands next to a cart that holds musical instruments including a tambourines and bells. 

Last year I had the privilege to work with Anabel Rubin, a local high school student who wanted to use her senior project to support our music therapy program. We are so grateful for her donation and her efforts to bring more musical experiences to patients and families. See below for information about her project!

Anabel is a recent graduate from Ruth Asawa SOTA High School in San Francisco and a member of the UCSF Youth Advisory Council. During her senior year, she took advantage of a unique opportunity provided by her high school's "Capstone Project" elective: to create and carry out any project of her choice. Anabel decided to enhance the music therapy and education programs at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, where she has been a patient herself.

With a grant of $450 from the nonprofit organization Friends of Ruth Asawa SOTA (FOSOTA), Anabel donated various musical instruments to the Music Therapy program at Mission Bay. This effort was supported by collaborations with UCSF Music Therapist Jenny and Child Life Specialist Rose. The project reflects her understanding of music’s therapeutic benefits and her commitment to improving patient experiences in the hospital.

This fall, Anabel will begin her studies in medical sciences at UC Berkeley, aspiring to become a physician-scientist. She views her recent project as the first step in a long-term commitment to integrating her passions for healthcare and the arts to benefit others. Anabel is enthusiastic about the positive impact these instruments will have on the hospital and is eager to continue contributing to the medical community.

Why these instruments? As music therapists, we think carefully about which instruments we use and why. Here are some benefits to the instruments that Anabel donated:

Tambourines have different textures and timbres and can be played in a variety of ways. They allow for exploration of sound, and you can make a sound with them by even tapping them lightly, which is great for patients with different levels of mobility and strength. They can be used to play along with many different genres of music.

This glockenspiel has a pentatonic scale, which means any note will sound great if we accompany them with a song. This allows us to set our patients up for success when improvising. The glockenspiel also has a really beautiful tone. 

The bell set, similarly, is great for improvising or playing along with a recorded track. Each bell comes out as an individual, so you could give one kid a specific set of notes to play or pass out individual notes during a group. They also sound really beautiful. Both of these are great ways to give patients a way to make music using melodic sounds, but they don't have to have any music background to participate. 

This picture shows three tambourines, a glockenspiel, and a large set of bells.