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Boston
Herald
By LARRY KATZ
Monday, February 5, 2001
The
Healing Power of MUSIC
It's easy to lose sight of the power of music. Pouring forth
from radios, TVs, portable disc players and computers, altering
our moods everywhere from supermarkets to ballparks, music accompanies
our lives. We simply take it for granted.
But the power of music lies beyond its ability to entertain
us and make pop stars and record companies obscenely wealthy.
Music really can change lives for the better -- and I'm not
talking about such relatively rare occurrences as the elation
of a three-hour Springsteen concert, the spiritual high you
can get from hearing an orchestra play Beethoven's Ninth or
the ecstasy of dancing the night away.
Without much notice of any kind, music is improving the lives
of people in need right here in the communities of Eastern Massachusetts.
The musicians making this genuinely life-changing music are
not performers per se. They're certainly not celebrities. They
are music therapists. And there might be no more moving testimony
to the power of music than the work they do.
Until recently, I had never thought about the work music therapists
do. I assumed it didn't amount to much more than using tunes
to help people explore their feelings or somesuch. Then I attended
a luncheon last fall where Cambridge-based Rounder Records announed
its plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.
Rounder has grown. While the label continues to release and
support folk, blues and bluegrass and other out-of-the-mainstream
genres, it is getting deeper into pop music. This year Rounder
will release new CDs by the Cowboy Junkies, Grant Lee Phillips,
Bruce Cockburn, Jann Arden, athe Blake Babies and the final
recordings of the late Laura Nyro.
For its 30th anniversary, Rounder initiated a Heritage Series
of roots music with a potion of the profits going toward an
annual scholarship at Berklee College of Music. And, starting
last fall and continuing through next summer, it is running
a series of concerts raising money for the Boston Institute
for Arts Therapy, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary
this year.
Never having heard of BIAT (say bee-aht), I was curious. What
did they do? Why had Rounder chosen it out of all possible recipients?
Turns out that Paul Foley, Rounders' general manager, sits on
the board of BIAT. He had become a supporter through his friendship
with fellow board member Mike Dreese, owner of Newbury Comics.
Dresse is such a fan that he has raised more than $100,000,
making Newbury Comics BIAT's top supporter.
"Because of the money we got from Newbury Comics we had
an incredible opportunity to develop our programs," BIAT
Executive Director Dr. Phillip Speiser says from the organization's
Dorchester offices. "We were able to start our CHAMPS program
in 11 communities, because we were getting phone calls from
all over Eastern Massachusetts from parents asking, "How
can we access your therapy services for our kids?'"
Late in the afternoon last Monday in the basement Community
Room at the Fox Library in Arlington, music therapist Allison
Macy was working with five boys and their mothers in CHAMPS
(an acronym for Children and Adults Have Arts
and Music Programs). The boys are 6 to 9 years
old. They have a range of problems, from developmental delays
to autism. They sit in chairs arranged in a circle and hardly
seemed interested when the tall, dark-haired Macy starts strumming
a guitar and tries to engage then in singing a "hello"
song.
But soon they are responding to Macy's gentle coaxing, moving
in their seats as she sings "we're gonna rock rock side
to side." Then they're taking turns drumming to a song
and, later, working together manipulating a sort of giant, cloth-covered
rubber band.
The boys are working and playing with each other, their moms
and Macy. Near the end of the fast-moving, 45-minute sesion
they're making music together on a variety of percussion instruments
and smiling as Macy sing, "We are all members of the Arlington
Band."
At that moment there's no doubt they are the sweetest band in
town.
It was touching to see boys and moms having a good time together.
And at the same time, Macy explained afterward, the boys were
increasing their motor skills and learning to follow directions,
to share, to work as a team. Little things maybe, but little
things that mean a lot.
While BIAT's therapits use other art forms in their work, "We
start these children with music," Speiser says, "because
it's most accessible to where they are developmentally. It's
most accessible to the soul."
I've always believed in the power of music to help, to heal,
to change lives, but I understood it far better after watching
Macy at work. It's a power you may never notice watching MTV
or reading Rolling Stone, but BIAT is proving it exists every
day.
Creative
Arts Therapy Programs...
Visual Art * Music * Dance * Drama
...That Can Make a World of Difference!
Boston Institute
for Arts Therapy
"Drawing out
the best in people since 1982"
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