St. Mary’s Hospital offers virtual reality concerts to patients
Posted April 8, 2026 7:29 am.
Last Updated April 8, 2026 4:05 pm.
What if a hospital visit could transport you somewhere beautiful, even for a moment?
Well, at Montreal’s St. Mary’s Hospital Centre, that is becoming a reality–through virtual reality.
On Wednesday, a new project was unveiled where science, music, and technology are blending together to bring immersive concerts directly to patients.
“The goal that we have is that we want to be able to demonstrate that the use of music can really help in terms of health for patients,” explained Dr. Julia Chabot, geriatrician at the hospital who is leading the initiative.
“We know that music does have benefits on the health of patients,” she added. “It can decrease anxiety, it can decrease pain, it can improve well-being.”
Before getting into medicine, Dr. Chabot was a classical singer.
She completed her master’s by studying the impact of live music concerts on patients hospitalized in their geriatric unit.
But when COVID hit, having live musicians was no longer possible.
That’s where the idea of virtual reality was born.
Years later, it has become a reality with the initiative’s very first collaborator: JUNO award-winning pianist and composer Alexandra Stréliski.
“It feels the same to film for virtual reality,” explained the musician. “I mean, there was a little audience there, we were in a church, so what we felt that day was hopefully what patients are going to feel, which is, you know, transported in this space.”
This technological initiative aims to demonstrate the potential of this type of intervention, with the hope that it may one day become a standard of care in healthcare settings and beyond, the hospital explained in a press release.
The goal they say is “to offer everyone the opportunity to experience a concert as a way to escape, refocus, or simply treat themselves to a moment of beauty.”
“Of course, I was thinking of people who are in a difficult situation that need to escape their hospital rooms,” said Stréliski. “So the emotion was palpable.”
“It was something we were doing for, you know, for the greater good with intention, with heart,” she added. “If we can help the healthcare system by any means, why not?”
The team hopes the project and research keep growing.
Working with more artists, expanding the hospital’s VR music catalog, so that in the future patients could be immersed in the music style of their choice.
“We were able to collaborate with so many different people, so many wonderful persons to be able to create those video capsules is incredible,” said Dr. Chabot. “I’m incredibly thankful.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
