An elderly man in the dementia unit sat quietly, his head lowered. Then Thaddeus Tukes started playing the iconic love ballad “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing,” and the room changed. The man lifted his head, started singing the lyrics, and told a story about his wife.
Appears InTwo years ago, Tukes, a 31-year-old Chicago composer and percussionist who has been called the world’s best vibraphonist, decided that music was about something more than receiving applause.
“I was getting to a point where I felt I was just playing because I could play,” Tukes said. “I wondered: ‘Where is this going? Why am I doing this? What made me want to be a musician?’”
That’s when he Googled how to heal people with music, and Illinois State University’s music therapy program popped up. Not only did he like what he saw, but the campus was close enough to commute, even in his unreliable car.
Tukes had performed around the world, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Center, but he still had to audition for admission into the program.
“It went well,” he said, laughing. “Dr. (Tom) Marko expressed very positive regards for my playing.”
Marko, the director of jazz studies in the School of Music, offered Tukes a role with Illinois State’s top jazz ensemble, calling him a “musical role model” for younger students. “I don’t get too many auditioners who are already established,” Marko said. “And he was as established as a young player could be.”
As a child, Tukes was called “musically precocious,” showing interest in the piano at 3 years old and starting lessons at 5. But he was also curious about percussion, turning Tinker Toys into drumsticks and beating on his sister’s Barbie dollhouse. His parents didn’t have to encourage him to practice—quite the opposite. Grades came first, and if he got A’s, he could practice all he wanted.
—Thaddeus Tukes
“My goal and dream is to bring healing to the masses through music.”
By 8, he was in percussion lessons as part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s scholarship program where he was drawn to the vibraphone, an instrument similar to the wooden xylophone, only it’s made of metal bars that create warm, mellow tones when struck. Inspired by vibraphonists Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton, and Stefon Harris, Tukes studied classical music but found his heart in jazz.
Tukes graduated from Northwestern University in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in jazz piano and vibraphone. In 2020, with the pandemic in full swing and a summer of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, he founded the Chicago Freedom Ensemble, a group of local musicians who started playing at protests. They discovered their music had a calming effect, helping to keep the demonstrations peaceful. Being involved in social justice advocacy had always been important to Tukes. Music added to his voice.
“I didn’t know the impact that it would have,” he said. “I just wanted to contribute. I didn’t need to lead the protest, but I felt like I could at least run the band and help keep everybody safe.”
When he decided to return to school in 2022, some were concerned he would stop performing, but he’s still in demand in Chicago, where he’s one of the few vibraphonists in the city.
“I’m definitely, definitely going to perform,” Tukes said. “My goal and dream is to bring healing to the masses through music, to take these things that I have learned and use them in live performance.”
What surprised him when he started the program was that music therapy isn’t just about singing to improve someone’s mood. Music therapists are part of the patient care team along with speech, occupational, and physical therapists, assessing patients’ needs and creating treatment plans.
Thaddues Tukes performs at Jazz UpFront. (Photos/Tim Vęatčh)
Music can be used to manage pain, recover speech or movement after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, improve walking for someone with a neurological disorder, or ease depression. It can also be used to alleviate anxiety before medical procedures. Music therapy benefits patients across the lifespan, with therapists working in neonatal intensive care units and hospices.
Tukes’ clinical experiences have taken him into nursing homes, schools, and a juvenile detention center, where he worked with youth on writing lyrics reflecting their emotions. The experiences changed him.
“It has shifted the way I hear music, in a good way,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about myself, so much more about music, and about our human experience with music, and how to manipulate it to achieve a certain outcome.”
At a nursing home, he worked with a resident on improving leg strength by creating a walking course with musical desk bells. As she stepped on each bell, they sang “Do-Re-Mi” to his guitar.
After a six-month clinical internship next spring, Tukes will graduate, take an exam to become board certified and go into private practice. His plan is to open an art therapy clinic with his sister, Candace, on the South Side of Chicago near where they grew up. The clinic will offer music and art therapy in a neighborhood where there’s a legacy of trauma and not a lot of resources.
“Sometimes there’s a reluctance to seek out therapy,” Tukes said. “But people will play music because they’re already conditioned to think of it as therapeutic. We can help heal trauma. My life will be so much more rewarding if at the end I can say, ‘Look at all these people who say I helped guide them to their healing.’ That sounds great to me.”
And sounding great is what Tukes is all about.
Music therapy at Illinois State
Illinois State’s School of Music offers one of the top music therapy master’s programs in the country and the only one approved in Illinois. The University also has a bachelor’s degree program in music therapy.
Music therapists work with populations across the lifespan, from infants to older adults. Therapists are employed in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, physical rehabilitation facilities, addiction recovery centers, and hospices.
Graduates take the national board certification exam to obtain the Music Therapist-Board Certified credential, which is necessary for professional practice.
