Tyler’s Room Ribbon Cutting

by | Nov 12, 2014 | Chordoma Blog

Last month we were proud to officially dedicate Tyler’s Room. We welcomed about 20 relatives and friends along with Beth Israel staffers and together we took our first look at the room itself. Though it’s tucked into a corner of Beth Israel’s sixth floor, it doesn’t look like part of a hospital. It looks like a small but heavily decorated basement room full of musical instruments. There are guitars, a ukulele, congas, keyboard, stereo, and on a somewhat more technologically impressive note, a mini recording studio complete with digital turntables. You can download a song and alter it, record yourself playing and singing, and scratch and switch between two different songs. The whole setup looks like a ton of fun to play around with.   Photos courtesy of Jacqueline Smith at Mount Sinai Beth...

The Dedication

by | Oct 22, 2014 | Chordoma Blog

Today my family and the music therapy staff of Mount Sinai Beth Israel officially dedicated Tyler’s Room. We’ve been looking forward to this moment since February 2013, and it was deeply emotional and deeply gratifying to mark this occasion with the friends and family who have supported us. Dr. Joanne Loewy, Dr. Edward Conway Jr. and John Mondanaro spoke movingly and music therapists Wen Chang-Lit and Robin “Mitch” Mitchell showed us the top-notch recording and DJing equipment and software that patients will use. It wasn’t on the program, but my father and I couldn’t resist sitting down with Mitch and Dr. Loewy to jam for a couple of minutes after we’d cut the ribbon. Thanks again to the hundreds of friends and supporters who’ve helped us get to this point. We have a lot to be proud of and a lot of work to do. My remarks from this afternoon: “A memory is like a song – or maybe a song is like a memory. It can stay with you forever even if you’ve experienced it just once. It can give you encouragement, inspiration, comfort, strength and love, and it’s always yours but it exists to be shared. Sharing that piece of music or that treasured memory only adds to the joy it brings. My family started this project because we wanted to share the memory of someone who lived for music – and who through music lives for us still. My brother Tyler was a music lover all his life, passionate about hearing, making and sharing music. Because music is also a way of communicating that makes our...

Music Never Stops: the Tyler Seaman Foundation

by | Jun 20, 2014 | Chordoma Blog

Tyler’s Music Room is the first project of Music Never Stops: The Tyler Seaman Foundation. It is a music therapy facility at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. The project will augment Beth Israel’s existing music therapy capabilities, giving patients and their families more access to music therapy. The funding Beth Israel receives from Music Never Stops: the Tyler Seaman Foundation will allow them to hire two new therapists and help more patients, pursue new research, purchase instruments like Tyler’s red SG bass, buy concert tickets, get recording equipment so patients can record their own music, and set up iTunes and Spotify accounts so they can make mixes like Tyler did. Tyler’s life is a testament to the power of music, and through Tyler’s Room, we want to share it with young people like Tyler for years and years to come. Why music therapy? Tyler was a music lover who attended countless concerts and jam sessions and never tired of talking about music and listening to new music with family and friends. When he was diagnosed with a clival chordoma at the age of 14, he used the music of Dr. John and the Allman Brothers to stay calm during frightening meetings with doctors and long, sometimes invasive tests. — helped him keep his energy up during physical therapy. Derek Trucks and Bob Marley lifted his spirits. The Band assisted during his radiation treatments. He became a drummer and found new outlets in pounding the skins, covering favorite songs, and creating new ones with his family. Later in life, when he dealt with the news of a...

Band Together

by | Jun 10, 2014 | Chordoma Blog

Band Together was a triumph for Music Never Stops: the Tyler Seaman Foundation and for Rock and Wrap It Up. The event honored Dori and Michael Fishbin for their work on behalf of Rock and Wrap It Up, an award-winning think tank that fights hunger and poverty. Highlights of the evening included dinner, live and silent auctions, and a performance by The Main Squeeze with special guest Vernon Reid. The event benefits Rock and Wrap It Up with a portion of the proceeds going to Music Never Stops: the Tyler Seaman Foundation. Dori and Michael received the Lena and Joseph Mandelbaum 2014 Humanitarian Award. Lena and Joseph Mandelbaum, Holocaust Survivors, inspired the anti-hunger and anti-poverty work of Rock and Wrap it Up! This award began in 2001 and past recipients include Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, the Allman Brothers Band, MTV co-founder Leslie Leventman, and Alyssa and Cliff...