1 of 3
Photo by Katelyn Mae Petrin
Mandy and Gary Schoenberger perform on Dec. 5 at the Center for Advanced Medicine.
2 of 3
Photo by Katelyn Mae Petrin
Mandy Schoenberger
3 of 3
Photo by Katelyn Mae Petrin
Gary Schoenberger
After a horseback accident in 2012, Gary Schoenberger, a musician who's performed in St. Louis since the '70s, was told that he would never play again.
“I couldn’t even bring myself to go in the room where my instruments were because I was afraid of what wouldn’t happen,” he recalls.
When he went to a rehabilitation facility, however, an attendant told him, “If you play a song on the ukulele, you can leave rehab.”
He worked relentlessly towards recovery. At one point, he discovered that he could squeeze his fingers together. “It means I can hold a guitar pick!” he exclaimed to a nurse. Finally, at the end of his stay, with an audience gathering around him, Schoenberger struggled through a song that he wrote for his daughter.
Gary's wife, Mandy, later saw a Volunteers Wanted sign on the piano in the lobby of Barnes–Jewish Hospital’s Center for Advanced Medicine. The couple signed up. “We wanted to give something back,” says Gary. Kevin Weaks, a member of Gary Schoenberger and the Perfect Strangers, joined the Schoenbergers.
Today, the three perform at the hospital each month, often playing songs that people know, such as Christmas classics. Their performances are part of Barnes–Jewish Hospital’s Arts + Healthcare program, which brings artists and musicians to the medical center as a “healing through the arts” initiative. Program director Sarah Colby says patients look forward to hearing the Schoenbergers—and even reschedule appointments to see them play. “I joke about [their] fans,” she says, "but I’m not joking."
“I think he wanted to show it does get better,” says Mandy, who works at BJC as a radiation therapist and often sees patients who thank her for playing.
“Having gone through this, I know how important it is when people know you’re there," says Gary. "A lot of times, people just want to walk by you and ignore it because it’s not pretty; we pay attention to the folks out there—that’s important.”
They sometimes perform songs written by cancer survivors and recognize them. “We’re all about surviving," says Mandy. "It’s a survival team."
“The only time I’m pain-free is on stage,” says Gary.
The Schoenbergers perform on the second Monday of each month from 11 a.m.–noon at the Center for Advanced Medicine, located at 4921 Parkview in the Central West End.
