@12:10 — Too ramped up. @12:30 — All better!

Guest Blogger: Jarrod Hartzler, Tuesday Musical’s Executive & Artistic Director

I love reading survey comments like this about Tuesday Musical’s Decompression Chamber program.

An antidote to workplace stress, our Decompression Chamber is bringing free chamber music concerts to hospitals, factories, government offices, social service agencies and other high-pressure sites throughout Akron.

Why classical music? Research shows that listening to it can decrease stress, lower blood pressure, boost brain function, improve productivity, increase physical performance, and sharpen memory.

As a bonus to those proven benefits, our Decompression Chamber concerts feature live music by excellent musicians — and you can enjoy them without even leaving your office.

Partly funded over two years by the Knight Foundation through its Knight Arts Challenge and by Akron’s GAR Foundation, Decompression Chamber has already been to the Summit County Juvenile Court (where an employee wrote the survey comment above), Urban Vision and the Exchange House in North Hill, Akron General Medical Center, the Summit County Courthouse, Minson Plaza on Arlington Road, and many other sites — and we’re planning more.

Each time, we distribute super-easy surveys to compare how listeners feel when they arrive at Decompression Chamber and how they feel after. Smiley faces are almost always the end result.

And, many of the listeners use the free tickets that we also distribute to attend Tuesday Musical’s MainStage and Fuze series concerts at EJ Thomas Hall.

Interested in bringing a Decompression Chamber concert to your workplace? Let us know at info@tuesdaymusical.org. And, if you’d like to experience more benefits of classical music, visit us at www.tuesdaymusical.org.