Waking the Spirit

May 9, 2016
In this inspirational memoir, Schulman tells of the healing power of music. After Schulman slips into a medically induced coma following complications from surgery for pancreatic cancer, his wife, Wendy, plays Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for him through earbuds and his vital signs stabilize. As a result of his own experience, Schulman, a classical guitarist, resolves to return to the surgical ICU with his guitar as a way of giving something to patients in a situation similar to his own. One woman for whom Schulman plays—he calls her Alice Blue Gown because of her blue nightgown—is in a coma and appears to be unresponsive to his chords, but two days later, she’s out of ICU, and she confirms that the music reached her and helped her heal. Another patient, Deena, is married to Ernie Harburg, son of Yip Harburg, who wrote “Over the Rainbow” with Harold Arlen; when Schulman plays songs by the Gershwins and Harburg and other works from the Great American Songbook, she connects with her past through music. The narrative can be repetitive, but Schulman nicely describes the healing effect that music can have. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Assoc.

June 1, 2016
A near-death survivor and career musician demonstrates the true healing power of music. In his heartfelt chronicle of unorthodox medicine, professional guitarist Schulman celebrates his sixth year as resident musician in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Manhattan's Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital. His own journey began years earlier when, at 57, he was admitted to the same ward as a terminal "Code Blue" patient with circulatory collapse following a routine pancreatic tumor excision. Along with the bedside presence of his wife, Wendy, also a professional musician, was an iPod loaded with Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Ellington, and the Beatles. It was, writes the author, "all the music that moved my heart"--just the thing to help him cope and sooth his spirit. Schulman miraculously survived his ordeal, escaping with only minor brain damage. He swiftly decided to redirect his music career toward patient care as a "medical musician" in the same ward where he was a patient just months prior. With a winning combination of anecdotal bedside stories, personal experience, and the research of neuroscientists, neuromusicologists, and fellow musicians, the author offers evidence of the calming, stabilizing, and synchronous ("entrainment") physical effects music therapy can have on a patient's nervous system, pain, and overall health. Though his own work in the ward was not without its share of trial and error, Schulman's innate intuitive skills (brain surgery patients were treated to Bach first) and compassionate demeanor made him an integral part of the hospital staff. The author considers his proactive role in patient care and his own astounding recovery to have both been beautifully transformed "by the bridge that music creates between the healthy and the sick." An inspirational testament to the limitless benefits of music and its role in health care.

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July 1, 2016
Schulman was a fiftysomething guitarist when, on the night of July 16, 2009, he almost died after complications following pancreatic surgery for what was initially thought to be a malignant mass. After he was put in a medically induced coma, no one expected him to survive. But he did. Some even called him a medical miracle. But 12 days in the hospital took its toll. The slightest movement of his fingers took a huge effort, yet, miraculously, he could still play the guitar, although he could only remember six pieces of musicall learned before he was 20. Everything else had to be rememorized. Today, he is a resident musician in the surgical intensive-care unit at Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital in New York City, where he almost lost his life. Now he plays his guitarBach and the Beatles being among his favoritesat the bedsides of critically ill patients, referring to himself as a medical musician. Schulman offers deeply moving testament to resiliency, perseverance, and growing recognition of the genuine healing power of music.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2016

After professional guitarist Schulman was pulled back from death in July 2009 by a medical miracle, he opted to become the resident musician in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at New York's Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, where he brings music--and hence joy and healing--to critically ill patients. Interested readers may have seen Josh Aronson's documentary short Andrew & Wendy, which aired on PBS last year.

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