Leah Goldstein entered the music therapy program at the Frost School of Music planning to work with children. But midway through her degree, in 2016, chance sent her to the other end of the life spectrum. For her practicum, or mandatory clinical fieldwork, she was unexpectedly placed in a hospice, her third choice. At the same time, her beloved grandmother died.
The contrast between her grandmother, who spent the end of her life at home supported by a loving family, and the often-isolated elderly patients she found in hospice inspired a new sense of mission in Goldstein. “I went in curious but grieving, and my grief opened my eyes,” said Goldstein. “My grandma lived at home until her death—she was blessed. I couldn’t believe how many of the elderly lived. I was in shock. There are so many elderly people confined to nursing homes with no stimulation, no family, and yet they had all these stories to tell.”
Goldstein says that while hospice care is meant to be for people with just a short time to live, patients can often end up staying in hospice for months or years longer.
“I said to myself, ‘We can’t choose how we’re born. But maybe we can choose how we die. Because we all deserve a dignified death.’”
The experience led Goldstein, now a board-certified music therapist, to focus her studies and practice on working with elderly patients in hospice and with conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. After graduating from the Frost School in 2018, she worked at what is now called Accent Care Hospice and Palliative Care before starting her own company, Chai Notes Music Therapy, several years ago.
Music has always been linked to healing, spirituality, and the Frost School for Goldstein, who comes from a family filled with powerhouse women. Her mother, Rachelle Nelson, who graduated from the Frost School in 1979 with degrees in music education, and theory and composition, was the first female cantor (a Jewish musical and liturgical leader) in Miami-Dade. Her aunt, Eve Nelson, also attended the Frost School before building a successful career in television and film.
Goldstein’s great-aunt was the legendary Judy Drucker, a pioneering impresario who was the first to present professional orchestras and classical music artists in Miami, and who became close with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Itzhak Perlman. Drucker was also a talented singer who studied voice at the University of Miami’s School of Music in the late 1940s. And Goldstein’s grandfather graduated from the University of Miami School of Law.
“I come from an incredibly musical family,” Goldstein said. “And I was so inspired being at UM and Frost because of my family and the legacy there.”
She grew up thinking of music as integral to spirituality and healing thanks to her mother, who divorced when her twin daughters were young and, Goldstein says, took them with her when she sang at Friday services, to funerals, to hospitals, and “everywhere.”
“I was exposed to music as part of birth and life and death events since I was a baby,” Goldstein said. “I’ve always known music healed people.”
Goldstein had her own experience with musical healing after high school, when she had to delay starting college by four years because she needed multiple surgeries for ulcerative colitis, a chronic and severe inflammatory bowel disease, and was frequently in the hospital.
“I had music therapy in the hospital, and I found that music could help in other ways than with spirituality, that it could help with pain,” she said.
Goldstein praises the extensive fieldwork she did at the Frost School. “I’m very compassionate and empathetic—I had that,” she said. “But with all the work in the field, I had to learn to always to be prepared, to improvise and be flexible.” She also minored in psychology. “I learned so much about the power of music and how the brain works with music, which was fascinating.”
The ability to adapt and improvise served Goldstein well in other ways. Several years ago, longing for more independence and time to have a child, she decided to launch her own practice.
“I took a giant leap of faith and opened Chai Notes Music Therapy,” Goldstein said. “Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.” She built her practice while pregnant and raising her daughter, now two years old. “She’s named Sarah,” said Goldstein. “Just like my grandma, who inspired me to do this work.”
