While the arts can’t stop the COVID-19 virus or the social unrest we see in the world today, they can give us insight into the choices we make when moving through crises and chaos. The arts invite everyone to think in new ways.

We often experience works of art as something that’s pleasing to our senses without a full understanding of the creative effort. Great art often shows us contradictions and crises, and we can learn a great deal from their resolutions. Through our understanding of art, we can gain a deeper understanding of how we might overcome our own challenges. In understanding extremes of contrast, we can see the beauty in art with themes that are not simply pleasing for their magnificent features or qualities.

Beethoven offers a wonderful example of moving artfully through crises and chaos. He composed his Symphony No.9 as his hearing loss became more and more pronounced. The opening of the symphony seems to come out of nowhere, from near silence in the opening to a full expression of what many consider to be the joy of freedom and universal brotherhood with Schiller’s Ode to joy (欢乐颂). Beethoven appears to have created a work of art that not only freed him from his personal struggles, but one that also speaks to the joy of living together in peace and harmony.

Have a dialogue between the two opposing parts and you will find that they always start out fighting each other until we come to an appreciation of difference—a oneness of the two opposing forces. The arts offer many lessons that can help us gain the knowledge we need to move more confidently in today’s competitive and uncertain environment. An openness to arts-based solutions will give you more control over your future.

By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time, though, he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova—not as a musician but as her page turner. “I love music, but I’m not a trained musician. I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”

Mr. Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.

“The job is a struggle for me because a lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr. Titterton explained.

Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is important, and each pianist has their own style to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.

But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr. Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”

Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms. Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.

“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”

Hospitals employ many therapeutic (治疗的) methods, such as medication, massage therapy and music therapy. And music therapy is growing in popularity.

Sandra Siedliecki is a Senior Scientist at the Nursing Institute of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She says music is a low-cost treatment. And she says scientists have done a lot of research on music’s effect on pain. Dr. Marian Good did a lot of studies looking at surgery patients and the use of music. In her studies, patients just listened to relaxing music. Dr. Good found that her surgery patients took fewer painkillers after they listened to music. Music had a good effect on short-term pain. However, chronic pain, the kind that recurs (复发) continually, changed little under the effect of music.

Dr. Linda Chian was studying something different. She was not interested in patients’ pain, but instead, their anxiety. She spent a lot of time with people who were in the hospital because their anxiety was so great that they couldn’t breathe. People with this condition often have to use breathing machines. Dr. Chian said that the machines sometimes did little to improve their condition. Sometimes they even made things worse. The patients would become more anxious. Dr. Chian let nurses tell patients that music was a good choice to make them feel better. They also placed signs near the patients’ beds—Listen to your music at least twice a day. The people who listened to music had a reduction in the amount of medication they received. In addition, their anxiety reduced by about 36 percent.

Both doctors had similar explanations why music was so helpful. Music can be a very powerful distracter in the brain when we’re listening to music that is pleasing and then it interrupts stressful thoughts.