Tag: beauty
Art as Non-Performative
Savion Glover was at the Joyce Theater in New York City this summer. I didn’t know anything about his production, “Om,” but had seen him perform before and was willing to be completely surprised. And I was. The curtain opened on a stage filled with pictures of religious figures and tap dancing icons, surrounded by […]
Read MoreI Got Life! – Being fully alive in the aesthetic experience
Nina Simone – Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life – YouTube. I haven’t been able to get this song out of head since watching this video over the New Year. It’s originally from the musical, “Hair”, and Nina Simone sang and recorded this song many times in her career, each time switching up the words to […]
Read MoreClive Robbins and his commitment to beauty
I’m sitting here, processing in music and art, the passing of Clive Robbins. I am more deeply affected by his passing than I might have imagined. He was my teacher for a semester at NYU. He was also a colleague – I stood in and lectured for him at Nordoff-Robbins once, in the same lecture […]
Read MorePlaying with being present
Next time you sit down at a piano or pick up an instrument or open your mouth to sing, try this: Play Listen so deeply to the sounds – focus your entire mind on the sounds. Don’t hold on to maintaining one sound or melody or phrase. If the music should lead you somewhere else, […]
Read MoreMusic: making whole
Last year, whilst in Edinburgh, I had the good fortune to go hear a bunch of fine musicians in the space of about 3 days. (They included Emily Scott, Teitur, Benni Hemm Hemm, Withered Hand, and Alasdair Roberts). Those few days still stand out in my mind – the music connected me to parts of […]
Read MoreMeeting Demeter at the Jiffy Lube
Who knew that a visit to the local Jiffy Lube on the busiest weekend of the year would yield such an energizing meeting with a stranger? I sat in the dingy waiting room with an older, full-statured woman with a walking stick leaning against her chair. We began to make small talk about how seemingly […]
Read MoreA few words about beauty
Yes – I’m tackling Beauty on my first Blog post. And chances are it will be a recurring theme in these posts. I am a music therapist. My work involves facilitating aesthetic experiences with and for my clients. Beautiful sounds make up a majority of the therapy sessions. Who are my music therapy influences in […]
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