For an hour on certain afternoons, melodic notes ring out from the fifth-floor atrium of the Norman Hackerman Building.
Mark Bernat, founder of Musical Memories, began hosting the event on the main campus two years ago. From noon to 1 p.m. every few weeks, staff members, students and faculty gather in the atrium to hear a variety of musical performances on their lunch breaks.
“We do a great service to people who are working very hard, and for that hour, they can let go of all their other stressful activities and just enjoy the music,” Bernat says.
In the 1980s, Bernat was a double bass professor at Butler School of Music. He now serves as the artistic director of the Red River Ensemble, which performs for patients, visitors and employees at Dell Seton Medical Center. His time working with the hospital is what inspired him to bring the music to the halls of the NHB.
The hospital performances are less frequent, Bernat says, but he continues to host Musical Memories.
“We’ve had guests from New York, from Chicago,” Bernat says. “I’ve even had my kids play.”
Bernat recruits student volunteers to perform their recital pieces, as well as distinguished faculty from Butler.
The April 3 performance, for example, featured Anton Nel, professor of piano and chamber music at UT. Nel is a winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall and has performed with various orchestras globally.
Those who gathered for that performance sat transfixed by Nel’s abilities. Even students on their way to class stopped for a minute or two, drawn in by the sound of the keys on the piano. Bernat says he brings in high-quality music for people to appreciate.
“I think it does a great, great service,” Bernat says. “It has an incredible personal effect on people, just from your emotional level to an intellectual level, and it just transforms the entire situation.”
Bernat says he also sees his hospital performances have a significant impact on patients.
“Often there’ll be families of patients that will come and listen to the music, and they tell us that, for that time that they listen to the music, they almost forget why they’re in the hospital,” Bernat says.
Bernat knows how hard faculty and staff work because his wife is a scientist and professor of neuroscience at UT. The Norman Hackerman Building is home to UT’s Department of Neuroscience, which sponsors Musical Memories.
“For that moment,” Bernat says, “when they come and listen to the music, it’s transformative.”
