Music Alive - Winter/Spring 2021 - RHYTHMIC CONNECTIONS

As we continue to move forward during this unprecedented pandemic, we recognize that life must still go on, but in a different way, especially for our seniors, caregivers and families. While we must maintain our "social distancing", which isolates many from their support system, we can still find healing in music, which can bring us ALL together.

With support from Music for People, the International Council on Active Aging, and a wonderful group of international music educators/healers (which keeps growing) we have created a series of webinars to assist this vulnerable population, with activities involving music and movement, designed for anyone and EVERYONE (even if you think you have no musical experience).

MUSIC ALIVE! - Winter 2021 is a series of FREE* weekly Zoom webinars, about one hour each, which will be presented every Wednesday at 4:00 pm EST, through March 10, hosted by a panel of international experts. A video of each weekly presentation, along with activities, will be posted on this web page (see below) to be used as a future resource.

Begun in May 2020, so far we have presented and posted videos from 11 programs during the Spring 2020 series, and 9 programs during the Fall 2020 series, which we encourage you to use as a resource.

Thank you for joining us each Wednesday on this musical healing journey.

MUSIC ALIVE - Winter 2021 PRESENTATIONS

Rebecca Russ

January 13
Rebecca Russ
Creative Solutions to Ending Loneliness
with our Senior Population

Rebecca will demonstrate many ways to address loneliness through the creative arts, including movement, music, and art.

LINK to Video Presentation

Rebecca Russ, MA, R-DMT, MHC, is a dance/movement therapist and mental health counselor who delivers relational and embodiment-based psychotherapy. Rebecca believes the way we connect with one another is the key to understanding ourselves at a deeper level. She has worked with individuals from all age groups in a variety of settings including psychiatric hospitals, partial hospitals, schools, adult day-centers, and non-profit sectors. Her professional aim is to help individuals express themselves from a place of inner truth, access their creative potential for healing, and cultiate a deeper connection to themselves and loved ones. Currently Rebecca works with Addressing Loneliness through Movement & Art (ALMA) as the Operations Manager, which sparks intergenerational connections that reduce loneliness and increase belonging through the creative arts.

Mary Knysh

January 20
Carl Chimi & Mary Knysh
Alive with Music!
Empowering Seniors Through Leadership

Alive with Music! is a joyful participatory program that promotes music making as a means for enhancing social, emotional, cognitive, and physical wellness. This dynamic senior-led program builds community, connecting and communication through the process of interactive musical creation. Mary and Carl train seniors to facilitate music circles in their local communities.

LINK to Video Presentation

Mary Knysh is the founder of Rhythmic Connections, an innovative company advancing education, health, community building, and creative development through drum circles and music improvisation programs that she has developed. Mary is also the primary teacher for the International Music for People organization, as well as an Orff Schulwerk Clinician, and has traveled internationally for over 30 years inspiring participants to tap into healing and human potential through the transformative power of music. As an author, Mary has penned five books on improvisational drumming, which assists and instructs educators, therapists, parents, and anyone interested in music. Mary is endorsed by Remo Drums and Rhythm Band Instruments.

Dr Jane Bentley

January 27
Jane Bentley
Meeting the Musical Moment
Join Jane from Scotland as she shares techniques learned from Music for People, and how she uses improvisation in a 7-year project with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and Edinburgh University.

LINK to Video Presentation

Dr Jane Bentley is a drummer and music-in-healthcare practitioner, consultant, and trainer, based in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2011 she was awarded the first ever PhD based on drum circles and improvisation. She has brought music to elder care and mental health care settings for over 15 years. Dr Bentley works part-time for the National Health Service in Scotland, focusing on music therapy with older adults. She established "Singing Memories" - a community singing group for people with dementia, and their carers; as well as collaborated with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra working with older adults in hospitals across Scotland. In 2015 Jane was awarded the prestigious Churchill travelling fellowship, to study the role of music in the well-being of older adults in Asia, and visited Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, and in 2018 she joined the Global Brain Health Institute as an Atlantic Fellow - working on music and brain health at Trinity College, Dublin.

Kate Richards Geller

February 3
Kate Richards Geller
Sing for Yourself:
Using the Elements of Music to Change Your Mind and Body

A simple music wellness practice includes listening to the body and the mind and the world around us as MUSIC, and then joining it, and then playing around to explore the possibilities. All you need is what you already have: breath, tone, time movement, and curiosity. Together we find ways to feel more in tune and in sync with ourselves and each other.
"It's remarkable how familiar and normal it feels after just a few moments."

LINK to Video Presentation

LINK to Short Humming Practice Video

Kate Richards Geller, singer-songwriter and vocal improviser, holds an MA in Music Therapy from NYU, an LCAT in NY State, and CBMT since 1997. She has worked in medical settings (pediatrics and Child Life), schools (therapeutic pre-schools), and community centers providing clinical services to individuals and groups of all ages with the goal of improving the Quality of Life through live, interactive music making. She works as a consultant for arts organizations such as Musical Health Technologies & UCLArts & Healing. Her method, Sing for Yourself, demonstrates how a regular singing practice can create meaningful and lasting change in individuals and communities. Currently in Los Angeles, Kate serves as Music Wellness Director at Urban Voices Project, whose mission is to create supportive spaces to nurture belonging and to shift the narrative and perception of homelessness towards one of agency and community. www.singforyourself.net

Steven Gintz

February 10
From Audience to Zoom:
Finding Joy and Creating Connection in Strange Times
with Steven Gintz

Steve Gintz is a board-certified music therapist, licensed mental health counselor and certified dementia practitioner, who has, like many of us, felt the challenges of pivoting to "online" when making connections with the people he serves. Steve will explain some ways that he uses to stay connected during virtual programming, and will share some songs he uses which are simply joyful, or which can connect us with something a bit deeper.

LINK to Video Presentation

Steve Gintz LMHC, MT-BC, CDP is board-certified music therapist, licensed mental health counselor, and certified dementia practitioner living and working in the greater Boston area. He is the founder and facilitator of Instrumental Health, which provides individual and group music therapy and enrichment programs for seniors. He misses writing and performing, and hopes to return to the stage when both the muse and normalcy return. www.sgmusictherapy.com

Arthur Hull

February 17
Village Music Circles:
Creating Community & Facilitating Human Potential Through Rhythm
with Arthur Hull

Arthur Hull is the founder of Village Music Circles, which brings rhythm-based events, trainings and experiences to organizations and communities throughout the world, where he is known as an inspirational presenter, a skilled group facilitator and a motivational trainer. Join us as Arthur shares skills for facilitating human potential and building strong communities unified through the joyful experience of music.

LINK to Video Presentation

Arthur Hull, Founder of Village Music Circles, was born in Ogden Utah and raised Mormon, Arthur takes his mission seriously. Arthur has dedicated his life to making the joy of rhythm accessible to people everywhere. Through his trainings, books, DVDs, and music Arthur strives to bring people a direct experience of the joy of rhythm; empowering others to carry the positive impact of community building through rhythm forward into their own lives and community. Arthur has sparked the world-wide movement of drum circle facilitation, creating a new and internationally recognized profession of the Drum Circle Facilitator. Arthur’s goal is to help this growing community develop, and build a strong platform from which values-based professionalism can emerge. www.villagemusiccircles.com

Simon Faulkner

February 24
Drum Circles for Specific Population Groups:
An Introduction to Drum Circles for Therapeutic and Educational Outcomes
with Simon Faulkner

LINK to Video Presentation

Join Simon as he discusses the collaboration behind his soon-to-be-released book, Drum Circles for Specific Population Groups, which brings together the collective experience of twenty practitioners working across the world in support of specialist populations using the medium of drumming. The authors are experts in their fields and provide critical advice on best-practice for working with youth, the elderly, veterans, people of different abilities, prisoners, those managing addiction, trauma patients, people experiencing grief and loss, and many more.

Simon Faulkner, team leader for Rhythm2Recovery, is a leading practitioner in the design and delivery of evidence based interventions utilizing rhythm to assist with social and emotional learning and recovery from trauma. He has been closely involved in research into the benefits of drumming, and has authored a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles. Simon has worked with a broad range of people, including young people 'at risk', people dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, mental health challenges, and developmental disorders such as those on the autism spectrum. While at The Holyoake Institute, a Drug & Alcohol prevention service he conceived, designed, and delivered the multi-award winning DRUMBEAT intervention, and its extension, the computer game DRUMBEAT Quest. Simon has delivered therapeutic interventions and training programs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia, as well as 1st Nations communities in both the USA and Canada. He has also worked closely with trauma services supporting refugee populations from a wide range of backgrounds. www.Rhythm2Recovery.com

Rufus Glassco

March 3
Drumming Out Cancer
with Rufus Glassco

Rufus Glassco has spent 8+ years working with Wellspring, Canada's leading cancer support organization. Join Rufus as he talks about why group hand drumming is particularly helpful to people who are receiving treatment for, recovering from, and who have survived cancer, while sharing an overview of both the positive outcomes, and some of the research that has been done to date. In addition, he will demonstrate a few activities, and some fun drumming games, which he uses in his drumming workshops.

LINK to Video Presentation

Rufus Glassco is a Drum Circle Facilitator, and a health and wellness drummer based out of Toronto, Ontario. He facilitates many health and wellness drum circles throughout the year, and is a trained HealthRHYTHMS, Drumbeat, and Rhythm2Recovery facilitator. He works with preschoolers, children, teens and older adults, with people recovering from cancer and mental illness, and people with Alzheimer's and dementia and their caregivers. He is particularly passionate about facilitating corporate wellness, resiliency and communications workshops, and working with veterans and first responders who have experienced trauma. He is also a shamanic coach and leads shamanic drum circle ceremonies, Temazcal ceremonies, labyrinth ceremonies and guided forest bathing walks on his family farm. Recently he became a sound healing practitioner, and is the founder and director of Sacred Song Circles, a community choir that he started online during the pandemic.

Jana Broder

March 10
Drum Magic
with Jana Broder

Jana had spent 20 years as a corporate caterer, when, in 1998, she discovered the magic in drumming. She moved to the Tampa Bay, FL area, and began her new passion; Drum Magic. Join Jana as she shares some of her knowledge and techniques for engaging folks that she has learned during the past 20+ years of making magic with drumming.

Please check out the short Drum Magic video below:
LINK to 'Senior Drumming Circle' Video

LINK to Video Presentation

Jana Broder sold her business, her house, and her belongings in 1998, after 20 years as a corporate caterer in Atlanta, GA, and moved to Northern California, where she was introduced to the drum. The impact of community drumming had a profound effect on Jana. In 2002, after learning technique and skills from some of the best teachers in hand drumming, she moved to the Tampa Bay, FL area to begin her new passion; Drum Magic. Jana's successful style of facilitating a drum circle has proven highly effective in corporate environments as well as prisons, schools, senior care communities, camps, festivals, etc. Some of her corporate clients include JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, Visa International, BP, and Dollywood. Jana's commitment to her community include her local Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Tampa Metro YMCA, where she was awarded Volunteer of the Year, and has served on their advisory board. www.drummagic.com

The Music Alive! Winter 2021 Series has ended.
We will resume again in April 2021.
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Until then, please feel free to view the VIDEOS of each presentation during the Winter 2021 series, or link for any of the Spring 2020 or Fall 2020 sessions.
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Thank You to ALL OF OUR PRESENTERS for sharing this wealth of wellness information for FREE.
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And Thank You to ALL THE ATTENDEES for connecting with us during this pandemic.

Music Alive!
Winter 2021

Host: Mary Knysh
Technical Director: Mike Deaton

January 13
Creative Solutions to Ending Loneliness
with our Senior Population
with Rebecca Russ