Music for health
Who We Are
Vigour Projects is an organization dedicated to exploring and pursuing the positive impact that music can have on the health of individuals and communities. Our projects bring together cutting-edge medical research and artistic expression toward a goal of community health and development.
The Music-Health Connection
While most people are aware that music has an affect on happiness, few people realize the multitude of ways in which music can benefit our health and even foster community development.
We have come to see our health in a fragmented way, separating physical, mental and emotional health, and individual and community health. Vigour Projects is a leader in reuniting these elements through a series of projects that explore, promote and educate people about the symbiotic relationship between musical expression and the health of individuals and communities.
Our Vision
Vigour Projects envisions a society where music and musical expression are understood and appreciated not only for their value as an art form, but also for their critical role in our health.
Our Mission
Vigour Projects’ mission is to actively improve health through music. Our primary focus is on finding opportunities to work together with charities dealing with specific health issues. Our secondary focus is on raising awareness of the role that music can play in individual and community health, so that people will begin to think about health in a new way.
We pursue our mission by implementing projects that leverage current research on the connection between music and health toward a goal that benefits people and communities.
Our Work
Vigour Projects plans, organizes, implements and evaluates a range of projects targeted toward the improvement of health. This variety in our projects and partnerships serves to showcase the level of diversity in the capacity of music for healing.
Each project targets a specific health issue (a disease, disability or community health matter), with music playing a key role in every initiative and event. The musical component can be a form of therapy, a means of raising funds to benefit a particular cause, or a way of bringing folks together in support of a community.
We collaborate with different charities and foundations and the scope of each initiative will depend on the needs of our partner organizations. A project will generally consist of a few main components: a music-based objective (e.g., song composition, music performance, music-technology application), multimedia (e.g., film documentary), research and development, and knowledge translation activities (e.g., through our website and live events). Some of these components will serve to generate funds for the partnering charity (i.e. song downloads, event donations).
The Founder
David Alter, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Dr. David Alter is a cardiologist and researcher in Toronto, Canada. He is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the Research Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention Program and a Scientist at Toronto Rehab and an Adjunct Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michaels’ Hospital. Dr. Alter is an Associate Professor with the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His cross appointments include Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Alter’s research interests extend across many disciplines, including social behavioural engagement for population health interventions, chronic vascular disease management, cardiovascular health services and outcomes research. Dr. Alter has over 100 peer-reviewed scholarly publications, many of which have been published in leading medical journals (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of American Medical Association). He has also received over $17,000,000 in peer-reviewed funding as principal and/or co-investigator. Dr. Alter is also a singer-songwriter and has written over 700 songs, some of which have placed as finalists or semi-finalists in international award competitions (i.e., the U.K. Songwriting contest). He has received radio-play in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and in many countries throughout Europe with such songs as “Legend in the world (Jesse James)”, “Take me home”, and “I’m rolling in it”. Dr. Alter is the Founder and President of Vigour Projects, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health of populations through music. Dr. Alter is also the Chief Scientific Director of InterxVent Canada. Dr. Alter is a Career Investigator with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
In the News
Interview on CIUT 89.5 FM – August 18th, 2010
The Annex Gleaner – Sept. 3rd, 2010
Rave On Studio Blog – Posted July 19th
Live Interview with Dr. Alter and Aaliah Michaela on Liquid Lunch at ThatChannel.com
Live Interview with Dr. Alter and Adrian Anantawan on Lynk PR “Live” at ThatChannel.com
History
Vigour Projects was originally founded in 2007 as Vigour Records, an online record label that generated funds for health-related charities through the sale of music downloads. Vigour Records provided musicians with an opportunity to support a specific health cause by allowing 50% of their music revenue to be donated directly to a health-related charity.
In early 2010, Vigour Records narrowed its focus and decided the best way to mark this fairly uncharted territory was to become a music project-based organization, in which music supports each project directly, rather than simply being used to generate funds for each partnering charity. Thus, the name changed from Vigour Records to Vigour Projects.
Our Research
Board of Directors
Darius Bagli, Physician and Musician
Mark Weinstock, Physician and Musician
Edwin Gailits, Documentary Filmmaker
Charity Partner
Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario
Key Partners
MaRS Social Innovation Generation
Media: sarah@vigourprojects.com
Events, Fundraising, and Partnerships Questions: sarah@vigourprojects.com
If you are passionate about the connection between health and music, email sarah@vigourprojects.com to find out how you can become involved in one of our projects.
