Jourdan, 19, USA

Basic need(s):

Health

Project:

Children Helping Children (CHC)

It was clear from a very early age that Jourdan was going places. At only seven years old and a prodigious violinist attending Juilliard, Jourdan developed a curious interest in the field of medicine, specifically neurology. While most children were still thumbing through picture books, Jourdan was engrossed in renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Fred Epstein's autobiography. The man's story fascinated him, and upon finishing the book, Jourdan wrote to the doctor requesting a meeting. Dr. Epstein gave him a tour of the pediatric ICU at Beth Israel North Hospital in New York City and Jourdan witnessed the isolated and underserved young patients suffering from devastating neurological diseases. A child prodigy on the violin and a firm believer in the power of music, Jourdan gathered other young conservatory musicians and produced monthly performances in New York City hospital playrooms to do his part. Proof of the healing properties of music, and one of Jourdan's most memorable moments, came when he played for a previously unresponsive patient who had recently undergone neurosurgery: "Every monitor she was hooked up to commenced beeping as she began reacting to my music. It was a moment I will never forget; it demonstrated the profound synergy between medicine and music." Since then he has produced and performed hundreds of Concerts for a Cure w/sold-out houses at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center and around the country through his organization Children Helping Children (CHC) to raise funds for neurological research and innovative hospital music therapy programs. To date, CHC has directly impacted over 42,000 people and has raised $4.7 million for its various charities. CHC now funds the largest music therapy program in America at the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital, serving 5,000 inpatients per year; and Jourdan has been named Artist-in-Residence for the UN's Council for Arts and Peace.