AUGUSTA, Ga. () – The Augusta Symphony offers a free program to promote self-care and help people manage stress.   

This time of the year, many can feel the weight of stress at work or need a place to push themselves, and tuning in with The Augusta Symphony could help you find a way to manage or experience something different with music. 

“We thought, what if we paired live music with mindfulness practice? Would that maybe help people access mindfulness in a different way,” said Veronica Andreassen-Barker, Music Therapist.

The Augusta Symphony has been doing ‘Tuning In’ since 2022, and it is all free. They partnered with the Piedmont Augusta Foundation to conduct private sessions with their survivorship program.

That includes oncology patients, providers, and families. They also partner with the Creel-Harrison Foundation to have a session open to the public. 

“We are actually able to do this in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the legal American orchestras,” said Katherine Bonner, Development Director, Augusta Symphony. “It was a big incentive through Covid. It’s a mindfulness program, and it’s completely centered around letting people think those uncomfortable thoughts and go through tough times and better equip them for the tools they need to be able to get through those times.”

Tuning in is a 6-week program. They have four sessions each year.

“We found out when we first did this program that when folks came in with pain levels of l like 7, 8, or 9 that by the end of the session, they were reporting stress and pain much lower by about 40%.,” said Baker.

Organizers say they hope participants are opened up to a new way to process life’s difficult moments.

“I always got the sense that music can be kind of a shared communal experience and a shared almost healing experience in some ways,” said Andrew Sehmann, Featured Musician.

If you want to sign up for the program, you can find that on the Augusta Symphony website.