LSO On Call

LSO On Call is a community outreach initiative that brings free chamber music directly to patients who can no longer attend concerts. The program operates across Massachusetts in hospital wards, rehabilitation centers, palliative hospices, and other healthcare facilities.

With funding support from Merck Research Laboratories Boston, the program was launched in 2009 with LSO On Call: Health and Harmony in the City, a single-day city-wide project that involved over 70 musicians visiting 24 different hospitals, community health centers, hospices, and other healthcare facilities throughout the Commonwealth. During its first year, LSO on Call performances touched the lives of 500 patients in a variety of health care settings.

Sharing music is a deeply meaningful experience that can open new lines of communication between the caregiver and patient. LSO On Call performances have brought Alzheimer's patients closer to their families through the sharing of familiar songs and introduced children on the pediatric burns unit to musical instruments.

Today, the orchestra has a number of standing chamber ensembles who present free LSO On Call performances regularly across the city, while the LSO Chamber Players program offers chamber ensembles for events such as weddings, medical meetings and conventions.

To date, LSO on Call has reached more than 1,000 patients in a variety of venues, including these:

Adelaide of Newton Centre
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston Healthcare for the Homeless - Barbara McInnis House
The Boston Home
Boston Medical Center
Brookhaven at Lexington
Elizabeth Seton Residences
Fenway Park Vaccination Center
Golden Living Center-Chetwynde
Hearthstone Alzheimer's Care at Height's Crossing
Hearthstone at New Horizons
Hebrew Rehabilitation Center
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Norumbega Point
Parmenter Community Health Care
Providence House Assisted Living
Sancta Maria Nursing Facility
Sarah Care Adult Day Health Services
Seven Hills Foundation
Shattuck Partners
Shriner's Hospital-Boston
South Cove Manor
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
The Stone Institute
Wingate Brighton
Women's Lunch Place