Beautiful Pianist Who Gave Bedside Concerts to Isolated Covid Patients Says Music Is Medicine

Beautiful Pianist Who Gave Bedside Concerts to Isolated Covid Patients Says Music Is Medicine

FOR AWARD-WINNING concert pianist Mei Rui, who serves as an artist collaborator at Rice University, music is both an aesthetic pleasure and medicine for healing the body and mind.


“Since the pandemic, for every concert I’ve programmed, I’ve tried to focus on the element of human connection,” says Rui. She describes her upcoming Dec. 10 concert at Rice University with her friend and colleague pianist Michael Bukhman as “a feast.” There’s a selection of four-hand and two-piano pieces “for every taste bud,” including classics by Schubert and Rachmaninoff, and a brand new composition by Texas composer Till Meyn titled Ascendant Grooves.

The variety of the program reflects Rui’s research into how different styles of classical music engage different regions of the listener’s brain and provide quantifiable neurophysiological benefits. “There’s so much overlap between science, medicine, and music,” says Rui, who founded the MUSICARE (Musicians United for Service in Care) initiative with the Houston Symphony, which facilitated virtual and live bedside music performances for otherwise isolated ICU patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. In February, she will join the department of neurosurgery at MD Anderson as an assistant professor and director of music medicine.

Although Rui and Bukhman have known each other for 20 years, the Dec. 10 concert will be the first time they’ve played together onstage for an audience. “He’s an incredible artist, and a deep musician,” says Rui of Bukhman. Whether seated on the same bench for Schubert’s kaleidoscopic Fantasie in F Minor or seated face-to-face at dueling grands for Meyn’s driving Ascendant Grooves, an almost psychic rapport between the pianists is essential for creating a captivating performance. “You need that openness and complete flow of conversation,” says Rui. “The other person needs to be very receptive and sensitive to nuanced changes through sound, movement and subtle cues.”

Mei Rui

Michael Bukhman


Born in China, Rui majored at Yale University in music and molecular biochemistry and biophysics and remains passionate about the health benefits of listening to classical music. While at Houston Methodist, as part of her research into the impact of music intervention on acute-care surgeons’ burnout, sleep, and stress, Rui curated and recorded a Surgeons' Music Intervention on Sleep and Stress Study Playlist, a sort of mixtape for self-medication with solo piano pieces by Brahms, Bach, and Chopin. Next year, she plans to publish that study’s fMRI imaging and actigraphy results which show how music, when carefully selected for the patient by a professional musician with a thorough knowledge of classical repertoire, can be powerful modulator of the human stress response. “It’s my hope that in 10 or 20 years, instead of reaching for Ambien or Prozac, people will reach for a Chopin Nocturne,” says Rui.

And speaking as a mother, Rui notes the playlist definitely has its intended, quantifiable effect on her four-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. “It really knocks them out,” laughs Rui.

Art + Entertainment
Fried Chicken, Fancy Bubbles, and a Side of Glamour: Sundays at The Marigold Club Just Got Fun

Chef-owner Austin Waiter of The Marigold Club, now serving fried chicken and Champagne on Sunday nights.


IF YOUR SUNDAY nights could use a little sparkle—and a lot of fried chicken—The Marigold Club has just the thing. Starting May 25 at 5pm, the Montrose hotspot known for its playful mix of Southern charm and London polish is rolling out a new weekly tradition: Fried Chicken & Champagne Sundays.

This isn’t your average comfort food situation. We're talking a shareable fried chicken dinner for two, made with farm-raised birds from Deeply Rooted Ranch, and served alongside buttery whipped potatoes, minted peas, aged cheddar scones, and some over-the-top sauces — including a foie gras sauce supreme that’s as extra as it sounds.

Keep ReadingShow less
Food

Heather Almond and Zinat Ahmed

NEARLY 1,700 GUESTS headed to Cotton Ranch in Katy for Cotton Holdings’ 13th annual CrawFest— a Texas-sized evening of food and music. The event raised a record-breaking $768,000 for the Cotton Foundation, which supports families facing disaster, illness and hardship.

Keep ReadingShow less
Parties

Maddy and Patrick Moffitt and Christina and David McAllen

A DERBY WATCH party was so much more than the fastest two minutes in sports! The Post Oak Hotel hosted the Hats, Hearts & Horseshoes event benefiting Bo's Place, and the most fashionable and philanthropic Houstonians turned out.

Keep ReadingShow less
Parties