Levi Ware can play. He can make a simple ukulele sound like a 12-string guitar. But the magic of his music isn't in his hands. It's in his heart. That was pretty clear as he sang to three ill children and their families Tuesday at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick. The kids were shy at first, but...
Levi Ware can play. He can make a simple ukulele sound like a 12-string guitar. But the magic of his music isn't in his hands. It's in his heart.
That was pretty clear as he sang to three ill children and their families Tuesday at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick. The kids were shy at first, but Ware warmed them up with his songs and by playfully interacting with them.
At one point, he brought a smile to the face of Vienna D'Agostino, 5, whose mother, Carrie, was bouncing a tambourine off the little girl's foot.
"I've never seen somebody play the tambourine with their foot before!" he said to Vienna, who had been in the hospital for 18 days.
MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns
This little concert was the East Coast debut of Ware's Melodic Caring Project, which has live-streamed free concerts into the hospital rooms of 3,000 terminally or gravely ill children, primarily on the West Coast, since 2013.
"Once we got going, we always knew we wanted to expand to the East Coast and Nashville," Ware said.
Ware is a Seattle-area songwriter and guitarist who played with the band Vast Capital, which toured with Pearl Jam, The Spin Doctors and other headliners. He's also released two solo albums.
But fame isn't everything.
"I always wanted my music to be impactful," he said. "Now it's impactful in a way I never imagined. My world just fell into place."
What follows is a story about like-minded people finding one another through happenstance and serendipity to do some good in the world.
It begins with Ware, 41, who was one of those workaday musicians, plugging away at their passion and craft, never making it big but doing what they love. And that usually means holding down another job to pay the bills. For Ware, it was carpentry and construction as he and his wife Stephanie raised their three children.
But fate interceded in the most inspiring and generous way and Ware was smart and sensitive enough to embrace it.
This story begins a few years ago with a sick 11-year-old girl in Ware's hometown of Mount Vernon in Washington State.
"A friend of mine, Ryan Barci, was her middle school teacher and wanted to do something," Ware said. "I said, 'Let's do a concert for her.' "
A local theater was booked, musicians and stage help volunteered and all 300 tickets were sold for the Concert for Kaydee (Curbow). On the night of the show, everyone showed but Kaydee.
"She was rushed to the hospital," Ware said. "But we were all there for her and we figured out a way for her to still see it."
Ware grabbed a laptop, and using a Wi-Fi signal from the coffee shop next door, streamed the concert into Kaydee's hospital room.
"We all wanted her to know she wasn't alone," he said. "When we saw how it lifted her, we realized this is pretty powerful."
Kaydee Curbow was 11 then. Today she is in remission from her cancer.
After the Concert for Kaydee, Ware did several more shows for kids in hospitals, and then enlisted more Seattle-area musicians to get involved.
He and his wife, Stephanie, launched Melodic Caring Project in 2013.
And then things just took off. Word spread, more hospitals liked the idea, and more artists signed up -- some you've heard of. The Black-Eyed Peas. Jason Mraz. David Crosby. Graham Nash. Switchfoot.
"Almost everybody we asked said yes," Ware said. "There's no downside."
"I think Jason Mraz really was what helped us go global," said Evan Blackstone, a veteran rock manager, now vice president of Melodic Caring. "He really got it."
These are not impersonal concerts. The artists perform for small groups of kids, know each by name, and interact with them via a laptop. The concerts are free for hospitals and patients.
And now the organization has come East thanks to a chance meeting at The Stone Pony between St. Peter's University Hospital cardiologist Nidhi Kumar and a producer for the organization.
Ware's ukulele concert was part of a whirlwind day, arranged by Kumar, with several New Jersey and New York hospitals, where she connected Ware to several of her friends and colleagues.
Earlier this year, Kumar launched an initiative called the Wellness Project, part of another program called Art Heals. They're so new she hasn't yet created a website for them.
"I'm very bad about social media," she said. "I'm more about getting people together, talking and looking for better ways to help people not get sick or heal."
Kumar aligned the Wellness Project to help support Elijah's Promise, the long-time New Brunswick soup kitchen which expanded into a job-training program with a culinary school and catering service. At a fundraiser for Elijah's Promise at The Stone Pony in September, she met Peter Bowers, a guy with a long resume in the music industry, and a current producer of the PBS show "Landmarks Live in Concert." He told her about Melodic Caring. She promptly offered a helping hand.
"Everyone is interested in this," she said. "Music has so many healing and soothing qualities."
She cited studies where music therapy reduces pain, lowers blood pressure and lessens anxiety.
Sara Kropoth, a music therapist at St. Peter's, says it is especially good for ill children.
"For kids that are here for long-term treatment, learning an instrument is a nice distraction from their illness," said Kropoth, who came to the concert with a bag of bongos, tambourines, maracas and rain sticks, and passed them out to the families.
"It normalizes the hospital experience and gives them an outlet for expression."
For a sick child, like any musician, those expressions can range from joy and relief, to sadness and anger -- a universal language for universal feelings.
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.
Some had it goin' ON in the '70s ... and then, there were folks like me. 
