From one hospital room to the next, Masmian Joseph makes his rounds, armed only with a microphone, his beloved electric piano sitting atop a medical trolley, and his voice.

On this particular day he wheels his keyboard into the room of a man who was admitted the night before. He warmly greets his patient as he plugs in his keyboard near the foot of the bed. 

“I’m here my friend! I’m going to play some music.”

Joseph starts off with an original song “Each Day a New Baby is Born”, a piece he wrote for his niece 16 years ago. 

Generally, his own compositions take a backseat to the standards — songs by artists such as Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. 

“Everyone knows the standards and the standards have no age limit,” he explains. “So if I do Sinatra, some of the most popular standards, everyone connects with it because if you're 16-years-old or you're 60 you know Frank Sinatra.”

But he’ll also go rogue, sometimes surprising his audience with an unusual cover tune. 

This time he segues into a reggae version of I’ve Got You Under My Skin, to the delight of patient Richard Groleau. 

“He's very original playing a Sinatra song in reggae,” Groleau laughs. “That's fantastic.”

 

Singing their worries away

For Joseph, his singing rounds are what he does while on break during his shifts at the MUHC’s internal medicine floor. 

Though his mini concerts are entirely voluntary, he says making the people in his care feel comfortable is just part of the job. 

“When a patient is sick, they've been here two, three weeks, they need uplifting,” he says. “A lot of them are scared. Not just scared, they're worried about how they'll be treated. Will they be able to keep their dignity?”

Joseph says he believes there’s a connection between music and healing, and patients say he has a knack for making them feel at ease.

“I like the way he is, he's a very nice person too,” says Groleau. “He helped me calm down when I came in the hospital so that's good.”

After a few songs and some small talk Joseph pauses to disinfect his keyboard and then makes his way down the hall to visit another patient. 

On the way he passes an elderly man in a wheelchair who is being discharged. The man’s daughter stops to shake Joseph’s hand and to say ‘thank you’. 

“We became good buddies,” Joseph says. 

 

Finding joy in a hospital setting

Nurse manager Aparna Bhattacharjee says family members also enjoy Joseph’s music and that it brings levity to the people who work on the floor as well. 

“We have a very stressful environment and there's a lot going on, it's an acute-care setting, people are dealing with illness, they're dealing with suffering,” she says. “Masmian just brings a moment where everyone can enjoy for a moment some music, some joy.”

The next stop is Joe Zottola’s room. At the patient’s request, he sings Unforgettable, while Zottola taps his hand and at points, sings along. 

“It’s relaxing, it puts me at ease,” he says. “You kind of get distracted from your problems.”

 

A lifelong affair 

Music comes naturally to Joseph. He grew up in a musical family and says his father played 7 or 8 different instruments. He taught himself to play piano at a young age and used to perform around the world with various bands.

These hospital singing sessions at the Glen site began several years ago when he worked in palliative care at the Montreal General. There was a piano on wheels in the family room that he would play, and he’s been continuing with it ever since.

“I would ask the patient, ‘Can I play you some music, sing some music?’” he says. “No one has ever said no. They've always said yes.”

He’ll be retiring in April and hopes to continue singing and volunteering in his native Antigua. But his colleagues aren’t ready to see him go.

“We're going to miss his music and his enthusiasm,” Bhattacharjee says. “We're hoping he comes back as a volunteer. I'll start working on that soon!”

Joseph finishes one last song before returning to work, and Zottola applauds and thanks him.

“It’s very uplifting because you've put a smile on their face and you know you've brought something positive to them,” Joseph says.