Monica Yunus Spreads Joy Through Music
Monica Yunus was a master’s student at The Juilliard School when the World Trade Center Towers were attacked on 9/11. Juilliard shares a city block with the New York City Fire Department’s Engine 40/Ladder 35, who mourned the loss of 11 firefighters lost in rescue efforts. As a highly talented opera singer, Monica became part of a group of Juilliard students who went to the firehouse to sing for members of their community in an attempt to bring others hope in a dark moment. The experience deeply impacted Monica, charting a path for her future. She described a conversation she had with her fellow students that week. “I want to be a student of music, but I also want to use music to help people in hard times,” she remembers saying.
In 2010, Monica co-founded Sing for Hope, an organization that aims to bring joy to those in need through music and performances in hospitals, nursing homes, refugee camps, and other locations worldwide. We were lucky enough to meet Monica last week when she joined Nature Links as a guest speaker.
Since her time at Juilliard, Monica has enjoyed an incredibly successful career as a world-renowned opera singer. She performed with the Metropolitan Opera as a principal artist for 10 years. She has performed with Andrea Bocelli in his hometown in Italy. She’s currently an artist in residence for the Wallace Center for Performing Arts and she has performed in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and across the United States. And while she’s performed in the most prestigious of venues around the world throughout her artistic career, Monica’s work with Sing for Hope has continued to bring joy through music to people regardless of income or social status.
Monica Yunus performing. The photo is from her website.
Since 2010, Sing for Hope has placed close to 600 pianos in public places throughout New York City and Los Angeles. Each piano is designed by an individual artist who spends 2-3 months painting or decorating a piano before it is deployed in a public setting. These pianos are gorgeous! Each piano spends 3 weeks on a sidewalk, in a park, or on a train platform to be enjoyed by anyone who passes by. After 3 weeks it is then delivered and donated to a public school where it lives forever, bringing music education and joy to countless school children. The organization also employs artists to perform in hospitals, refugee camps, nursing homes and other locations where music and art have the potential to once again, bring hope to those suffering in dark moments.
“The arts should be considered a type of medication. If you are isolated or need to spend lots of time in a hospital, you should be able to engage with music to help bring you healing,” Monica said.
Several Nature Links participants have spent significant time in hospitals, either recovering from traumatic brain injuries or healing from procedures connected to their particular disability. “I’ve been in the hospital for a long time. Music can lift your spirits up and gives your life meaning. It gives you a reason to live. I wish someone had come in to play music for me. It’s enriching,” one participant said.
We absolutely loved meeting Monica and learning about the fabulous work of Sing for Hope. Before we left, one participant asked her what her favorite part of her work has been. “I love the spontaneous community that happens through music,” she said. “The arts can help us learn that there are people in the world who still care about one another.”
