Music Heals Week: Donate to WXPN Musicians On Call!
Starting Monday, August 18, WXPN is dedicating the week to exploring music’s power to comfort, inspire, and heal.
Music Heals Week spotlights our audience’s personal connection to music, specifically songs that help them through difficult times, while raising support for WXPN’s Musicians On Call program.
Over the past 20 years, Musicians On Call volunteers have performed for more than 156,000 individuals throughout the WXPN broadcast area.
WXPN’s Music Heals Week will feature the “Songs That Got You Through” Lunch Hour, Monday through Wednesday at noon, with listeners sharing music and stories of comfort and healing. From 6 a.m. to midnight all week, hear reflections from Musicians On Call volunteers, guides, staff, and those whose lives have been touched by the program.
Daily guests include Pete Griffin, Musicians On Call CEO (Mon); local MOC musician David Falcone (Tue); local MOC guide Susan Berkowitz (Wed); local MOC musician Mutlu (Thu); and singer-songwriter Amos Lee (Fri).
Fundraising during Music Heals Week
This year’s Music Heals Week includes a $5,000 matching challenge in memory of Andy Katz, with every donation to WXPN Musicians On Call matched dollar-for-dollar. The goal is to raise $55,000 to sustain year-round programming, with proceeds from the WXPN 5K Run & Funky Miler Walk on Sunday, October 19 also supporting the program.
- If we can get just 100 listeners to donate $50, we will meet that challenge in no time.
- Every $150 funds one night of bedside programming at a local hospital.
- With your support, we’ll add a new weekly bedside program at another area healthcare facility in 2026.
Full interviews will be available daily here on this page below.
Watch Mike Vasilikos full interview with Musicians On Call CEO Pete Griffin on Monday August 18
To kick off Music Heals Week, WXPN’s Mike V. spoke with Musicians On Call CEO Pete Griffin about the program’s 25-year history, its growth from New York City to hospitals nationwide, and the moments that continue to inspire its mission.
Griffin recalls a program in Las Vegas following the 2017 mass shooting at Route 91 Harvest festival. Within a week of the tragedy, Musicians On Call brought artists, some of whom had performed at the festival, to play for survivors in the hospital.
Many patients’ last memory of hearing live music was in the chaos of that night. Hearing it again, in a calm and caring setting, helped them reconnect with the joy and community that first drew them to the festival.
Griffin says he watched the energy in the room shift from fear and grief to lightness and hope, a transformation that reinforced why the organization works to reach more hospitals and more people.
How it works
- Volunteer Guides act as the “eyes and ears” of the program, leading musicians through each visit and connecting with families and staff.
- Volunteer Musicians are professional-caliber local artists who perform hopeful, uplifting songs at the bedside or during virtual programs.
- Bedside programs bring musicians room-to-room for intimate, acoustic performances. Each session lasts about 90 minutes and serves 25–30 people.
- Virtual programs use video conferencing to connect performers with patients across multiple hospitals at once, reaching hundreds of people in a single session.
WXPN Musicians On Call programs are active at: Bryn Mawr Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Lankenau Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, the Philadelphia VA Medical Center Community Living Center, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and Wilmington Hospital/Christiana Care.
MOC’s network includes Volunteer Guides, Volunteer Musicians and renowned artist supporters including Dolly Parton, Barry Manilow, Kelly Clarkson, Darius Rucker, Trisha Yearwood, Katy Perry, Noah Kahan, Jason Derulo, Ed Sheeran, The War And Treaty, Reba McEntire, Chicago, Camila Cabello, Lauren Daigle, Train, Wynonna Judd, Charles Esten, Nick Jonas, Blake Shelton, Lindsey Stirling, Keith Urban, Pharrell, Kelsea Ballerini, Old Dominion, Amos Lee, Gavin DeGraw, Luis Fonsi, Peter Frampton, Luke Bryan, Menudo and many more