An oddly poignant quote from 108-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer:

“In my opinion musicians are privileged people. It brings you from the first tone to another world, not in the world with supermarkets, and not with money, in a world with peace and beauty.”

Certainly chimes with experience–improvising on a guitar is certainly a deeply hypnotic and restorative activity, at least to me.

From the same BBC article:

Born in 1903, Mrs Herz-Sommer has managed to retain a positive outlook despite a horrific start to life. The oldest living survivor of the Holocaust, she was imprisoned in Terezin (also known as Theresienstadt) concentration camp, near Prague, with her young son Raphael.

She survived the war by playing the piano in concerts within the camp. Her husband died in Germany at Belsen concentration camp.