The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel has received a pledge of $100,000 from Music Never Stops: The Tyler Seaman Foundation, in honor of Tyler Seaman, who passed away at the age of 18 from clival chordoma, a rare type of spinal cancer.

Tyler had a passion for music, and his family felt that helping other teens ill with cancer or other serious disease was a fitting way to honor him.

Tyler attended his first concert at the age of 8, he played the drums, and he filled his life with music, even as he endured three years of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and other treatments. He was thrilled when the Make-A-Wish Foundation gave him tickets for 10 Allman Brothers concerts, which he attended with family and friends.

The Center is creating a new teen and young adult music therapy program and purchasing studio recording and DJ equipment. It has also renovated its music therapy suite, renaming it “Tyler’s Room,” and creating a warm environment for patients to create, record, and share their music.

“We hope that Tyler’s Room becomes a favorite place for the Louis Armstrong Center music therapy staff and its teen patient population,” says Diane Seaman, Tyler’s mother. “Our family wants to share Tyler’s story and his love of music, and we hope that it brings happiness, respite from illness, and healing.”