New Life in the Face of Tragedy

Updated: May 3, 2020

SANTA CLARITA, CA - After prematurely giving birth to her daughter and losing her other child, Robin Spielberg learned the transformative power of music. The 57 year-old professional pianist and composer dedicates her time to touring as a musician and holding seminars where she talks about her experiences as a spokesperson for the American Music Therapy Association.

Spielberg thoroughly believes that music has the power to save lives. She began playing music before the age of seven, when she began taking professional lessons. During her childhood, she says music served as an escape from the challenges of everyday life.

However, Spielberg did not realize how important music would become for her. She graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a minor in music. From there, she started off with a job playing in piano rooms in New York.

In 1993 she self-released her first album, titled Heal of the Hand. When she sent the album to different labels, it landed her a six-record contract with North Star. She says this created a great audience for her.

Spielberg soon had her debut at Carnegie Hall in 1997 and found out she was pregnant with twin girls around the same time. Unfortunately, she ended up losing one of her children and giving birth to the other at only 23 weeks.

Because her daughter Valerie was born prematurely and only weighed 12 ounces, she was forced to leave her in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for four months. Spielberg was allowed to visit the NICU and even persuaded the nurses to let her play CDs of her music.

Keeping the melodies at a low volume, Spielberg and the nurses soon realized it not only improved her baby’s vital signs, but helped the other babies surrounding her. As she saw the physical effects of the music progress throughout the months of her daughter’s stay, she began doing research on its scientific reasoning.

Her studies put her in contact with The American Music Therapy Association. The work that AMTA did to help her understand why music essentially saved her daughter’s health inspired her to become a spokesperson for the organization.

One doctor that Spielberg learned about was Dr. Jayne Standley and her work through Florida State University. Standley has done research studies about the treatment music therapy gives premature children in NICUs. She also invented the Pacifier Activated Lullaby Device (PAL), which is an FDA-approved teaching device to help premature infants with feeding techniques.

Spielberg has continuously traveled the country to speak about this kind of research, stating Standley as one of her idols. Her daughter Valerie has developed into a healthy child, though she suffers from short-term memory loss. One way Spielberg helps her combat this is by using memorization techniques through the rhythm and melody of music.

She also tours as a musician, where she has played Broadway tunes for senior citizens. She uses her time touring and her skills in music to enhance her volunteer work for AMTA.

While she has recorded 18 successful albums and is a Billboard charts pianist, she remains focused on telling her story to help others. One of her biggest accomplishments in this is her TEDx Talk on The Healing Power of Music in 2014.