Why I Believe Music Can Heal the Human Heart
There are moments in life that no words can reach. Moments when the world breaks, and language simply isn’t enough.
When I first built Ridley Academy, I didn’t set out to teach piano. I wanted to give people a way to speak when words failed, because that’s what music once did for me. It saved me.
Over the years, I’ve had the honor of watching thousands of students come through our doors, each carrying their own story. Some seek joy, some seek challenge, and some—like one of our students, Faye—seek healing.
Faye joined Ridley Academy in 2023, not to chase perfection or applause, but because she felt that music still had something to offer her. She learned quickly. She came to one of our concerts that summer with her husband and daughter, and as she told me later, it was one of the most joyful nights of their lives.
A few months later, her husband was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. During those months of uncertainty and pain, Faye began to play. She would sit at the piano—sometimes in a hospital chapel, sometimes at home—and pour her heart into the keys. Not to perform, but to breathe. To make sense of what was happening.
When her husband passed away, she made a choice that humbled me deeply. Instead of stepping away from the piano, she leaned in. She joined our Mentorship Program with a single goal: to write a song in memory of him.
She finished that song this year. It’s beautiful, raw, and honest. You can feel both the ache and the light breaking through it. I believe that’s what real art is.
When I read Faye’s story, I sat quietly for a long while. It brought me back to my own past—the days after my father died, when music was the only place I could find peace. Music doesn’t erase pain, but it gives it meaning. It gives it somewhere to go.
Faye reminded me that healing isn’t about forgetting. It’s about transforming. Taking grief, one of the heaviest emotions a person can carry, and turning it into sound and movement and color. Something you can release. Something that, somehow, helps others heal too.
That’s why I built Ridley Academy. Not to create pianists who can play scales faster than anyone else, but to create people who can feel deeply and express truth through sound. Watching people like Faye rediscover who they are through music—that’s what it’s all about.
You can read Faye’s full story and watch her performance here. And if her journey speaks to you, maybe it’s time to begin your own.
Because music doesn’t just change how you play. It changes who you are.
With love,
Stephen Ridley
Founder, Ridley Academy
