This week’s guest is Andrea Antognoni, a certified music practitioner, or therapeutic musician. What is a certified music practitioner, you ask? Certified music practitioners offer a healing presence and palliative care to the ill and the dying in hospitals, hospices, homes, memory-care units and other clinical settings. Andrea provides one-to-one attention to patients tailored to their immediate needs.

Some of the benefits of therapeutic music are reduced blood pressure, stabilization of heart rate, decreasing of muscular tension, boosting the immune system, increasing endorphin levels, and much more. In short, a therapeutic musician creates a healing presence at the bedside with live therapeutic music. You can check out all the benefits to therapeutic music at Andrea’s website, where you can download her brochure, learn more about the practice, and get in contact directly with Andrea.

Andrea is also my neighbor, and it was through a casual conversation in my front yard that I learned what a therapeutic musician is and does. I knew I had to have her on the show after talking to her, and on this week’s episode we talk about Andrea’s life as a musician. Her mother claims she came out of the womb singing, and from there, music has been her whole life. She earned her degree in it, performed in a touring band in the Northeast, and now practices as a therapeutic musician. You can learn more about how therapeutic musicians are trained at the Music for Healing and Transition Program.

You need to hear this episode, if for no other reason than to hear Andrea sing live in my basement. She has a resplendent voice, and an incredibly warming presence. You don’t want to miss it. So join us on Wednesday, May 20 on iTunes, Stitcher, or right here at the Jon of All Trades homepage.