Former Virgin Entertainment CEO builds umbrella organization supporting music therapy programs nationwide
Founded in 2024, the Los Angeles based charity aims to reawaken people to music’s therapeutic benefits while providing critical funding to organizations serving everyone from veterans with PTSD to victims of domestic violence.
What inspired you to create an organization focused specifically on music based healing programs?
I think it goes right back to my own life and the influence of music on it. I’ve always been passionate about music, and I’ve seen the impact on many people during my time as a physical retailer running the Virgin Megastore business here in the States. The joy of being able to give more music to more people and the impact of that.
I’ve also been associated with music charities over the years, whether it be Nordoff and Robbins music therapy in the UK or Music for All Seasons in the US. For over 30 years, I’ve seen the immediate impact of music firsthand.
The last couple of years, I’ve really been aware that music as a healing force has started to drift into the background in terms of people’s imaginations, and it’s time to reawaken people to the benefits of music. That’s what really inspired me to start Rhythm & Relief.
Can you give us an overview of the work these organizations are doing to improve people’s health and well being through music?
When we started a few months ago, we weren’t sure about the volume of organizations out there, but we took a view with Rhythm & Relief rather than creating something else on a local basis to implement the healing power of music. We would create an umbrella organization that brought member organizations within the umbrella. So far, we’ve got 17 of those and we’ve probably got about another 40 organizations that we’re looking to bring on board.
All 17 we’ve approached have decided to come under the umbrella and we’re delighted to have them. It manifests itself in a wide array of work, so some organizations are catering to incarcerated individuals, people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who are returning veterans, even children of warfare. We’re also talking to people who are victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and the impact of music in helping them overcome their trauma, their anxiety, the symptoms that result from their particular dilemma.
About 40% of people who have chronic pain suffer from depression and anxiety, and that’s an ever increasing number of the US population. Similarly, there’s probably about a fifth of the US population who have mental health issues. We’re talking about millions, and when one thinks of 17 organizations scattered across the country covering 10 states, there’s a lot more good work that could be done within the US that’s not yet being done through lack of means or resources.
What’s your vision behind the Rhythm Section music ambassador program and Rhythm & Relief Records?
We were looking at the need for us to work very closely with the entertainment and music community to further the mission of Rhythm & Relief, which is to support those organizations harnessing the healing power of music to improve health and well being. We were approached by Jada Nikole, who had heard about Rhythm & Relief and was very passionate about our cause. She very kindly donated her song Always Been You, which is a very beautiful and heartfelt song rendering the sentiment of finding oneself through music.
That gave us the idea that she could be the pioneer for our Rhythm Section, which is all those artists that we wish to bring under the cause to help raise awareness and vital funds for our member organizations and their music programs, but also for sharing their own testimonials as to what they may have experienced as artists. Whether it be verbal or written support of our cause, whether they want to do a video testimonial as to how music helped them.
Artists’ main audience is their fans or their peer group of other artists. I think to give artists the vehicle to say “we believe in this, we have a passion, this cause matters, and I want to help with this cause,” that’s why we created the Rhythm Section.
What gaps did you see in music therapy funding that led you to create Rhythm & Relief?
Simply that it was a lack of funding. Talking to my existing ensemble member organizations, it’s heartbreaking to see the lack of funding there. There’s a backdrop of funding being cut back for research, for supporting programs such as this, but I’d like to think that we can be more constructive and find an audience that’s not necessarily being tapped into yet.
Our aim is to build that awareness with the philanthropic community, so it becomes more normal for people to think about music and the healing power of music. All the organizations are going through it at the moment, so let’s try and find a new audience and augment the contributions.
From my experience in the music industry, I’ve always had the thought that the public are most generous in terms of supporting music and understanding what music is about. We’ve all experienced it. They just need to be reminded and educated. Similarly with the artist community, they’re very generous. Whenever there’s a disaster, they’re first to step up and rally and have events to raise funds. So why wait for a disaster? Let’s make sure it’s a permanent fixture and have a cause that we can all get behind going forward.
Why is music such a powerful tool for addressing these challenges?
This goes back to ancient civilizations, really. One can think of the Native American community with drumming and Greek philosophers looking at the alignment of body and soul with music. It’s not new. But what we’re trying to do is bring that to the fore, and there are now quite significant clinical studies which demonstrate the healing power of music, both mental and physical.
I was talking recently to Daniel Levitin, who’s written some fantastic books, Your Brain on Music and This Is Your Brain on Music. He was saying there are thousands, literally thousands, of peer reviewed studies over the last two years which have been undertaken that demonstrate very clearly the benefit of music. And yet the public’s not aware of that, so let’s try and bring everybody together and be collaborative and cooperative rather than competitive about this.
I was reminded recently when I went to see Dionne Warwick playing, and Stevie Wonder came on for the encore. I was sitting there thinking that guy’s written so many songs that are dear to the Rhythm & Relief cause, one being Love’s in Need of Love Today from the Songs in the Key of Life album. There’s no greater statement that here we are 50 years later saying the same thing.
Looking ahead to 2026, what does growth look like in terms of donor support, ambassadors, and member organizations?
We’ve been very aggressive in our commitment to giving 85% plus of our funds donated to those member organizations, but we’re also mindful there’s other people out there. If we can get to a reasonable level within the US market, I’m envisaging probably 40 to 50 organizations that are out there. Maybe some will come to our website at rhythmandrelief.org, who will then see that they can apply. If we’re not aware of them, please shout out. If you’re doing great work with music, we want to hear about you.
Then we can take it to other territories. I’m hoping there’ll be a groundswell of popularity and awareness from our US offering that’ll make it easier to go into the UK, Europe, Far East, Middle East, Africa, South America, rest of the world. As I say, it’s cross-cultural. These challenges have no discrimination with anxiety. Anxiety and trauma is common to the world and there’s a lot of people suffering, so let’s get music out there. It’s a universal medicine.
For artists who are interested in joining the Rhythm Section or donors who want to support Rhythm & Relief, how can they get involved?
We want it to be as simple as possible for the artist community. We know they’re under all sorts of pressure. If they subscribe to the idea that this cause matters and they want to help, then it can be from sharing video testimonials, maybe donating items for memorabilia auctions, performing at fundraising events that we plan to have as part of our event calendar, or benefit concerts. Every contribution, no matter how large or small, helps us to amplify the healing power of music.
I also would love to think that they want to share that with their fans as well. Some will have the time to do it, others will maybe have less time, but we hope in the next six to 12 months we can demonstrate the real impact of what we’re doing. It’s immediate, it’s straight to the heart of the matter. There’s no middle operation or confusion about it. We’ve been very transparent in what we’re doing, and it’s just a simple solution.
The website is rhythmandrelief.org. Within that, we have our Rhythm Section, which is a tab at the top where we’re featuring specifically what’s happening with the artistic community, their ability to sign up and post those testimonials. We hope that will grow and grow. We’ve started, and now it’ll just snowball from here.