To commemorate nurses week, the Passion Project was created to honour the unsung heroes during many of the global medical crisis such as the recent Covid-19 Pandemic. The all-female music team behind “Katherine Hannan: To Her Nurses” includes music and lyrics by Angela Sclafani and the beautiful song was preformed by Broadway’s Hannah Corneau.
On May 12, 1820, a pioneer who changed the face of modern nursing was born, Florence Nightingale established the philosophy of modern nursing. She also founded the first nursing school in 1870. So it’s only fitting that International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday of May 12th. Many countries have their own version of nurses week, Canada’s is wrapping up this week. However due to the current pandemic, it has been stretched to be one full month of recognition for the selfless and often tireless work they preform,
Many heroic nurse have followed in Nightingale’s footsteps. They were not looking for accolades or ticker tape parades. They were just doing the job they love and caring for humanity all across the globe. Take a look in your own neighbourhood. I’m sure you’ll be able to recognize a few local heroes on your street. If you were my neighbour, you’d only have to look at our house as my wife is a nurse working around the clock to stem the spread of Covid-19.
One such hero was Katherine Hannan who was a Johnson and Johnson employee who answered the call from the Red Cross for volunteer nurses to help out when the United States entered WWI in 1917. As the war raged on, the Spanish Flu was sweeping the globe Hannan was sent to Vladivostok, Siberia, to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces as chief nurse of the Evacuation Hospital, where she and fellow nurses treated wounded soldiers and those suffering from the flu. She then became the chief nurse of the Evacuation Hospital for the American Expeditionary Forces, where she and fellow nurses treated wounded soldiers and those suffering from the flu.
The song is a touching tribute to Hannan and those who follow in her footsteps today. It is written from the perspective of Hannan sending a letter to the nurses who work for and with her during such trying times. It’s also a dedication to the tireless medical teams working around the clock. I’m sure it will tug at your heart strings as much as it did mine. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/4BI9Gglsr8U
Passion Project was developed, in part, at the Orchard Project NYC Greenhouse. The need for this song cycle today, Angela Sclafani explains, is “to redefine love as passion for one’s own creativity and to use that definition to illuminate the women we have forgotten is a necessary act of healing. We need to keep widening the breadth of female stories in the theater and diversifying the artists that bring them to life. I think that this piece is both timely and timeless in its efforts to reach back into past lives in order to bring more power to women today.”
The all-female music team behind “Katherine Hannan: To Her Nurses” includes music and lyrics by Angela Sclafani with orchestration, keyboards, and production by Macy Schmidt. The band, that contributed and recorded each part remotely while in isolation, featured Elena Bonomo on drums and Marian Gomez Villota as drum recording engineer. Production was completed with videography by Max Sterling, video editing and design by Mayarose Creative, with additional editing by Justin Goldner.“Katherine Hannan: To Her Nurses” was written as a new song for Sclafani’s female-driven song series, PASSION PROJECT: from Women to Their Work.
As nursing week wraps up in Canada, remember those brave enough to go into the battle zone while we self isolate and stay home. For many, staying home is not an option. To all the nurses across the globe, thank you for the work that you continue to do without hesitation. Although nurses week at this time is not a celebration for many of you, it allows us to stop for a moment, bang our pots and say thanks.
For more info follow The Passion Project here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionprojectsongs/ or on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/PassionProjectSongs/.
