QUEBEC CITY - Guylaine Gregoire was already a renowned violinist when her father became sick.
"He was dying, of a brain tumor," she says.
"And then I was playing for him in the hospital, I mean he was very emotional, and it was easier for me to play my instrument than talking. He couldn't talk much anyway. And it was really our connection, me and my dad."
Soon, she began playing for other patients, and founded the organization Les Porteurs de Musique.
The group plays in hospitals, seniors centres, psychiatric institutes, prisons, schools for handicapped children – everywhere, she says, that people wouldn't otherwise have access to live music.
Guy Lariviere, assistant head nurse at a psychiatric institute in Quebec City where Greogoire played recently, says the music is clearly therapeutic.
"Every people here like this kind of music," says Lariviere, of the Institut universitaire en sante mentale de Quebec. "I think it's better than pills."
Hugette Emond-Dumais, 65, has been at the centre for the past 20 years.
She says she wants to "live on the outside one day" and the music is one of the tools that will help her get there.
That's no surprise to Gregoire.
"When you're in a vulnerable place, that's where music hits you the most," she says.
"And we all know it. When we're sad, we put our best music on, and it's healing."
