ABOUT
SHARING NOTES

In 2012, student cellist Allegra Montanari saw a huge gap in where music was going versus where it was needed most. After having conversations with friends at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, she realized that there was an opportunity and began organizing visits from fellow musicians to people receiving treatment at the Lurie Cancer Center. Thus, Sharing Notes was born.

Today, Sharing Notes improves quality of life for Chicago hospital patients through intimate, engaging, uplifting live music performances.

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Sharing Notes provides high quality arts performances and unique, individualized live musical experiences for patients who otherwise wouldn't have access. Moving beyond the boundaries of traditional recitals, performances focus on the audience with careful musical selection and personalized interactions. In our 2024-2025 season, Sharing Notes musicians performed more than 300 hours of music serving 3,600 patients, family members and hospital staff in eleven healthcare facilities throughout Chicago.

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Music provides distraction to break the isolation of illness and long hospital stays and Sharing Notes musicians talk with patients, take requests, lead games with children and react sensitively to patients. While most of our performances are in-person, our live, virtual bedside concerts offer equally engaging and meaningful connection opportunities for those who cannot be seen in-person.