Portrait of Row
Portrait of Row
On hold music for the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.
When Melbourne's Alfred Hospital reached out to Jessica Wells to write on-hold music at the request of a patient's family, she set out to paint her portrait with sounds. The patient's name was Row.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 Mark Green's wife Row had a medical emergency. She was flown from her home in Tasmania to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for treatment. Green, who was unable to be with his wife due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, was constantly on the phone with the team who looked after her.
Wells was asked to create something that represented Row and invoked a calm and pleasant feeling. "The hospital says that on average, people are on hold for about 5 minutes when they ring up," Wells explains. "They are captive audiences while they wait, so I want to take them on a journey through melodic themes and key changes. I designed the music to be played on loop, so the ending ties in with the beginning."
Portrait Of Row, which was recorded in Sydney in 2022, features pianist Natalya Aynsley, violinists Veronique Serret and Kerry Martin, violist Andrew Jezek and cellist Heather Lindsay. The music was also part of a documentary on how the Alfred Hospital worked with Green and Wells.
-excerpt from ABC Classic article by Ria Andriani
“Music should be thought about in business, and in how it can help with the general public’s mental health.”
Find out more about this work
Portrait of Row - full work
Healing with on hold music - ABC Classic Article and Radio Interview with Megan Burslem
Portrait of Row Documentary - Alfred Hospital