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After a season in the hospital, accompanying a close relative, Virginia Castelló decided that she had to do something to humanize and brighten up that environment, as necessary as it is normally cold and inhospitable.
No sooner said than done. Virginia, passionate about flamenco, decided six years ago to set up a non-profit association to bring music and add a touch of color to hospitals: Música en vena. First, she involved her family, Juan Alberto García de Cubas and their children, Juan and Ignacio, who are the main drivers of the project. And little by little they have been expanding the team, with communication professionals and advisors, both musicians and scientists.
Something that started as a small solidarity initiative, involving musicians and friends to play two or three songs in a pediatric or coronary unit or the auditorium of a public hospital, has over time become a recognized and awarded project, which has reached thousands of patients in Madrid and Catalonia.
Música en vena has signed various agreements with health, scientific, university and musical institutions. It has also managed to attract brands and has had a strong impact on the media. Recently, it has started a collaboration with the production company Newtral –created by journalist Ana Pastor– with a series of audiovisual pieces that Jorge Drexler inaugurated by singing a lullaby to a premature baby at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganés.
Música en vena has managed to confirm something we already suspected: that music heals. And incidentally, it has become a good model of social action.