Walking up stairs can keep us well. It can even make us better. Or the activity can bring on a heart attack. Heart attack hill, one person called it. I walk up the stairs at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital to hear music and before I get there I can hear it. It floats down from level 9 to level 3 and then all the way up again. Trombones, harps, hand pan, tabla, cello, guitar, voice. I haven’t had a heart attack and I don’t want one so I walk every morning around my suburb, into the little apology for a forest and sprint up a few hills. At 67, I am intentional about fitness. The Stairwell Project at RBWH is an initiative [ begun June 2015] that tomorrow will see us start playing for Cancer Care Services under a small funded program from the RBWH Foundation that quite simply, is meant to bring some degree of wellness for everyone there.
Ian Ahles, Classical Guitar, Level 7, RBWH Stairwell. Ned Hanlon Building.
This morning I was with our jazz combo [ Jazzkill ] as they played in the outside foyer of the hospital and as they played we were immersed into the sadness of the coming and going, the smiles, the happiness, the throwing of a few coins and the story about a dying husband. We were moved to realise again, that this was a thing we are doing that is not insignificant. Wellness does not come as a measure on an adding machine – but eventually it does have an economic impact. The bills of health care are reduced by the increase in wellness! And music is a means, a conduit, a little bit of magic. And we are the magicians. May it be.
“Jazz kill” – Admissions, RBWH Ground Floor, Ned Hanlon Building.
Peteskibreen's Blog 
when i was on call at the old royal children’s hospital i used to sit in the stair-well and play the flute, just enjoying the resonance and echoes of the structure. it was always surprising how many people would come to the stairs to listen.
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