Mahrad
Meet Mahrad!
Music is a way to quiet painful thoughts and ease the mind
When Mahrad first heard about High Notes Avante through Steve at York Support Services Network, he wasn’t looking for a music program he was looking for people.
He didn’t have many friends, spent a lot of time at home, and carried a lifetime of difficult experiences: war as a child in Iran, trauma and loss in Germany, immigration struggles in Canada, depression, addiction, and multiple hospitalizations. What he found at High Notes Avante was more than lessons.
He found a place where music, mental health and community come together to say: you are not alone, and your story is not over.
At High Notes Avante, Mahrad has takes guitar lessons (acoustic and classical) learning pieces like Ode to Joy and Fur Elise, joined music wellness classes that help him manage stress and feel calmer, attends fundraising workshops and events where he meets kind and understanding people and shared special moments, like going to High Notes Avante galas once by himself and once proudly bringing his mother.
Music, for him, is not just sound. It’s a way to quiet painful thoughts and ease his mind, a bridge to his memories, like songs from his time in Germany 30 years ago and a language of connection, whether playing guitar alone or at his sister’s home with his niece and nephew, or with others in High Notes Avantes programs.
Through High Notes Avante, he has formed meaningful friendships, especially with Ingrid, whose courage in running a not-for-profit organization he finds deeply inspiring. He sees in her and in High Notes Avante a living example of the motto: learn a lesson and move on; or as High Notes Avante says, move forward on high notes.
He says many charities do important work but are often distant. You donate, receive a letter, maybe a small gift, and that’s it. High Notes Avante is different. It offers free initial music lessons to people facing mental health challenges, provides music wellness classes and a book club where people can talk, listen and feel seen. Also High Notes Avante creates warm, welcoming events with snacks, conversation and genuine human connection.
For someone like Mahrad living with depression, on lifelong medication, working a modest job this is not just a “program.” It is a lifeline: a reason to leave the house, a place to belong and a reminder that his experiences can lead to empathy, not only pain.
At one point, feeling low, Mahrad even told his caseworker he wanted to stop receiving disability support because he didn’t like taking money from the government. She gently suggested something that changed his life: “Why don’t you give money to charity?” Since then, he has donated whenever he can sometimes to Christmas kettles, children’s charities, and community fridges but High Notes Avante holds a special place in his heart because it walks beside people living with mental health challenges, not just on paper, but in person.
He now dreams of spreading the word about High Notes Avante at his Toastmasters club, so that people who have never heard of it, people who might be struggling in silence, can find the same support he did.