For readers of Oliver Sacks and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande comes a “shimmery account of performing … for a series of patients with varied afflictions, including the inevitable final one.”—New York Times

A celebrated art therapist plays the cello for her patients—and offers a moving reflection on the extraordinary power of music to enrich our lives, all the way to the very end.

When Claire Oppert plays the cello, miracles happen. Children with profound autism, patients in extreme pain and distress, even people on the threshold of death smile, cry, laugh, sing and dance. “When you play, I’m not sick anymore,” one man tells her. “I feel happy, I feel alive.”

In The Schubert Treatment, Oppert recounts her remarkable story of healing suffering through music, alongside portraits of the many people she has helped. Born into a family of doctors and artists, Oppert trained as a classical cellist and began playing at a center for autistic youth, where she witnessed how music could connect with even the most difficult-to-reach patients. Later, she began working as an art therapist with people with neurodegenerative diseases and palliative care patients, eventually conducting clinical trials that proved the effect of her “Schubert treatment”: using music as a counter-stimulation to reduce pain and anxiety during stressful procedures.

Oppert’s crystalline, lyrical vignettes of the patients whose lives she has touched are punctuated with anecdotes from her own life as a musician, as well as reflections on the meaning of art and the human need for connection and creativity. Compassionate, uplifting, and deeply humane, The Schubert Treatment is a testament to the incredible power of music to heal our bodies, minds, and souls.

Prologue
A Good Story

Paul
Through the Wall

Paul, the Explosion
Howard

Amélia
My Father

Dîlan
The Cello

David
Encounter

Holding Space
Russia

Poets in Space
The Moscow Conservatory

A Musical Ballet
The Turn

A Day Like Any Other
She and Him
Faculty of Medicine

The Poet on the Second Floor

The Book: A Life
Writing

The Legion of Honor Exhibition
Musical Transfer

Painting the Seasons
In the Metro

Leading Lady
A New Place

Monsieur Roy’s Blood Test
Clinical Trials

Madame Moretti’s Bath
Research

Bitter Medicine and the Breath of Music
Results

Monsieur Koumba
Music Is a Force

Madame Müller
Music Is a Friend

Monsieur Rivière
Music Is Life

Monsieur Lebrun
Music Is Vibration

Monsieur Martin
Music Is Living Memory

Madame Azaro
Music Is Flight

Monsieur Fridman
Music Is Silence

Madame Bellec
Music Is a Child’s Song

Monsieur Loiseau
Music Is Resonance

Madame Rameau
Music Is Light

Madame Adélaïde
Music Is Voice

Madame Cazeneuve
Music Is Provocation

Madame Bloch
Music Is Danger

Madame Beauchamp
Music Is Deliverance

Monsieur Khalil
Music Is Rhythm

Madame Ricci
Music Is a Dream

Madame Fontaine
Music Is Joy

Madame Eleonora
Music Is Movement

Monsieur N’Daye
Music Is a Meeting
My Mother

Epilogue
Undercurrent

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography

“[A] shimmery account of performing … for a series of patients with varied afflictions, including the inevitable final one.”
—New York Times

"[A] touching, lyrical book.... Compassionate, intriguing, often uplifting vignettes delivered in crystalline prose."
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

“Oppert, a classical cellist and art therapist, debuts with a luminous ode to the “mysterious ways music... moves” patients with such conditions as dementia and autism… Assured and lyrical, this impresses."
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

“This short story of music, and the temporary healing Oppert says it provides, is told in brief chapters, most of which include captivating short portraits of the often-enchanting and colourful patients she has worked with over the years. [...] The short lyrical and poetic passages make for an easy read.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“The Schubert Treatment is a life-affirming hymn to the power of music: to bring joy in the face of illness and suffering and to ease even physical pain. Claire Oppert has written a great and necessary work of art.”
—Grammy Award–winning violinist and conductor Maxim Vengerov

"These healing musical encounters at the frontiers of 'unimaginable lands'—the lands of profound dementia and non-speaking autism— resonate in the heart like chords on Claire Oppert's cello."
—Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes

“In astonishing encounters with Oppert’s cello, music becomes a lifeline for those who lack memory, language, hope, or trust. Raw and lyrical, The Schubert Treatment sparkles with insight and faith in the human spirit.”
—Adriana Barton, author of Wired for Music

"A cello is a musical instrument, but in the right hands it can also be an invaluable medical instrument. Claire Oppert shows on every page of The Schubert Treatment just how indispensable the music she makes is for her patients. Her passion for music and healing shines through, bringing the reader into each room and bedside. This is an important book, helping to bring music back to its ancient role as an integral part of medicine."
—Andrew Schulman, author of Waking the Spirit: A Musician’s Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul

“The Schubert Treatment is a wonderful book, the story of a fearless communicator, using the power of music - and of her own extraordinary empathy - to almost magical effect. Inspiring, impressive and above all heartwarming.”
—Steven Isserlis, world-renowned cellist

"A lyrical and heartbreaking book that beautifully celebrates the power of music to connect people and provide comfort. Oppert’s storytelling weaves her own journey into music therapy with compassionate descriptions of the lives she touches through her cello playing. A must-read for anyone who is involved in care of those who are suffering physically or mentally."
—Hannah Wunsch, author of The Autumn Ghost