I found the room I was searching for in the Medical Center and knocked on the door; the nurse greeted me and I entered the dark hospital room. I remember the setting distinctly: the room was silent and eerie, and an elderly patient on life support was in her bed. I introduced myself and explained to the nurse and to the patient that I was a student musician who volunteered my time with a nonprofit that provides music therapy to...

I’ve come to learn that a musician should understand music not only through performance, but also through the ways in which music reflects history, psychology, politics, and other disciplines. I came to realize, as I volunteered my time playing music for patients in music therapy, that music is not just art to be enjoyed: it can be used in seemingly unrelated fields like medicine. This realization showed me how closely related music is to other fields in academia. As...