Swan Songs Portland has a simple but powerful mission: to provide free, intimate concerts for people at the end of their lives and pay local musicians to perform them. The nonprofit fulfilled its first concert request last autumn when it hired a mariachi band to play for a person terminally ill with cancer, surrounded by her friends and family. It is the first affiliate of Swan Songs, which was founded in Austin, Texas 20 years ago.

Currently serving Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties, SSP has nearly 50 musicians – and growing –  it can call on short notice to perform an array of requested musical styles, from Beethoven to Bob Dylan-esque folk and rock. Jim Friscia is Swan Songs Portland’s board president and concert planner. Karyn Thurston is a musician and  board member of SSP who performs with her partner, Ben Grace, in the folk music duo Story & Tune. They join us, along with Terri Burton, who had requested a concert for her dying mother that Grace performed earlier this year.