Our history

In 1992, Austin, Texas musician Christine Albert was asked to sing at a small gathering of the friends and family of John Swann, a formerly vibrant 40-year-old man who was facing an early death from a brain aneurysm. Months later she sang in the hospital room of a cancer patient who loved to hear her sing French songs. He died a week later.

The honor of being invited to sing at these powerful moments in people’s lives was humbling and inspiring. At the same time a good friend of Christine’s and a gifted psychotherapist, Gaea Logan, was supporting a friend through his final transition and she recognized the compelling need to make music more available to patients nearing the end of life.

And so, the idea was born to create an organization to act as a liaison between the healthcare and music communities. Through MusicAid, as the initiative was known then, the two women organized a number of concerts over the next several years. They also received support from and collaborated with Craig Hella Johnson and New Texas Festival, which later became the acclaimed Conspirare.

In 2005, Ms. Albert felt called to create more structure around the mission and Christine, Gaea, Craig Deats, Dr. Tim Dziuk, and Susan Kolliopoulos - the founding board members - formed a 501(c)(3) organization, adopting the name Swan Songs to capture the spirit of the mission and in memory of John Swann, whose love of music inspired this work.

Thank you to the many individuals who have helped bring this vision to life.