The song in the doorway

A man had been pacing since morning. At 61, he had been living with advanced frontal lobe dementia for three years. Language had mostly disappeared. What remained were fragments: an occasional “no,” a sudden cry and restless movement from one end of the room to the other. Stillness rarely lasted more than a few seconds. 

During a long shift at a care home in New Brunswick, a nurse paused in the doorway of his room and tried something different. She started to play some music. 

The song was Country Road from an album by Room 217, a Canadian organization transforming how care is delivered through music. It was not part of a prescribed clinical intervention or a formal therapy session. It was a simple act of care informed by her Room 217 training that encouraged caregivers to use music as a way of reaching people when words no longer could.  

He stopped pacing. Then, slowly, he began to move in a small circle, something the nurse had never seen him do before. When he resumed walking, his pace had softened. The urgency was gone. After a few more songs, she guided him toward a chair. 

He sat for three full songs, and remained there, tapping his foot lightly to the rhythm. He had not sat still for more than a few seconds in months. 

“It brought me to tears,” the nurse later recalled. 

Moments like this are at the heart of MUSIC CARE by Room 217, a program that uses music to improve health and well-being. 

With support from the Azrieli Foundation, Room 217 has expanded its ability to train caregivers, educators, musicians and health professionals across Canada to integrate music into everyday care. Through the Foundation’s Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre and the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, the organization is helping reshape care environments by recognizing music not as an add-on activity but as an essential tool for human connection. 

The approach is both practical and deeply human. Unlike music therapy, which operates within a clinical framework, music care is designed to be accessible to everyone. A personal support worker humming during a bedside transfer. A hospice volunteer offering a familiar song in place of conversation. A teacher reaching for rhythm when language fails. A musician playing music connected to a person’s memories, identity or sense of self. 

These interventions are often small and improvised, woven into the ordinary flow of daily life. Yet their impact can be profound.

Music care in action. Room 217’s newly launched music video, with music written by Canadian singer/songwriter, Murray McLauchlan, that was dedicated to them on their 10th anniversary. 

By supporting organizations like Room 217, the Azrieli Foundation is advancing a broader vision for arts and culture in Canada, one that recognizes music as a powerful tool for health, well-being and social connection. 

The Foundation has brought together its granting, collaborations and strategic initiatives under the unified vision of the Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre, focused on expanding access to meaningful arts experiences for Canadians of all ages. The initiative reflects the Foundation’s belief that the arts are not peripheral to human flourishing but central to it. 

That philosophy is especially visible in Room 217’s work. 

Since its founding, the organization has trained thousands of caregivers, musicians and educators working in long-term care homes, hospitals, hospices, schools and private residences across the country. The reach is exponential: every caregiver trained in music care creates moments of calm and dignity for the people they support. 

The Azrieli Foundation’s funding has helped Room 217 strengthen training programs, expand partnerships and extend its work into new care settings. Importantly, it has also helped elevate caregiving itself, reinforcing the idea that care is about preserving humanity, identity and emotional connection, not only about clinical outcomes.  

This vision aligns with the Foundation’s broader commitment to improving quality of life through the arts. Through its support for arts and health initiatives, the Foundation is helping build a more resilient, connected and accessible cultural sector in Canada while advancing a growing understanding that creative engagement can play a meaningful role in well-being at every stage of life.  

As Bev Foster, the Executive Director from Room 217, reflected: 

“A world that embraces music care is one that sees people beyond their diagnosis. Music becomes as essential as medication. It brings relief to daily caregiving tasks. For older adults, it is a world where music is part of every day, supporting engagement, memory and a sense of self. For caregivers, it is a world with deeper care relationships and connection through shared musical experiences. For all of us, it is a world where our souls are nourished by songs and stories.” 

It is a powerful vision for the future of care in Canada. And sometimes, it begins with something as small as a doorway, a song and a person finally, briefly, at ease.