music as therapy: hallelujah!!!

I have been saying for years that I use music as mental and emotional therapy.

In fact, when Christina and I were talking at our luncheon earlier, I brought up that very topic!

I told her about the 'hate tape' I'd made while I was in Okinawa, a mixtape that I'd curated myself to help get me through a few rough days around a chauvinistic boss.

I still have the mix, though I had to record it onto a different cassette after the first one wore out or broke or whatever.

Some of the songs had to be changed, as they weren't available to me anymore.

The result was the same, though: listening to the tape could always take me from a state of anger and high stress back to my usual easy-going, positive self.

What a coincidence to have spoken of that today, n'est-ce pas?

Right place, right time.

I was very glad I'd volunteered to usher at this free event.

Yes, that's correct: this was one of two SMF events that were free to the public.

It was also one of several held at the Savannah Cultural Arts Center this year.

 

New venue, free event, and, oddly enough, no music at all.

"Music And Mind: Renée Fleming" served two purposes.

First, it introduced people to the singer's new book, "Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness", set to go public later this month.

She even showed us an MRI of her brain that pointed out the areas used for speaking, for singing, and, most interesting to me, for imagining singing. 

That last activity engaged more parts of the brain than the other two did and that was fascinating.

Second, this was a public panel discussion about the arts and health.

The other three panelists each had a turn solo at the microphone, as Fleming had, before joining together for a Q&A session.

Jamey Espina, on the far left, is at Hospice Savannah, and he spoke of music being used for dementia patients, and their loved ones, to allow them to communicate.

The man next to him is Ustad Zakir Hussain, a classical tabla virtuoso who is playing in concert at the SMF tomorrow evening.

He told the story of his father speaking musical beats into his ear from infancy to early childhood, with that music helping his ailing father become stronger.

Both men truly were interesting to hear.

However, I was most fascinated with the words from Dr. Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, a neurogeneticist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. The focus of her work there is with patients of many types of dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease. But here's what I liked best: she spoke in plain language, not in medical jargon, much as I had done with my students, communicating with them in their language. That made all that she told us not only informative, but understandable, at least in a general sense.

The entire session was very positive, very hopeful, very enlightening.

Wow.

Her book is to include stories from other professionals and, if this event was anything at all like what she has compiled, then I may have to seek out the book.

That's pretty high praise from me.

For any other tome, I would just wait for the movie.

(smile!)