The inaugural lecture in the Carol Hampton Bitcon Series at the 2010 AMTA conference in Cleveland featured Honorary Life Members Alan Solomon and Ken Medema in a unique blend of music, history, and audience involvement in Pioneers, Generations, & Memories: Music Therapy’s Diamond Anniversary. Enjoy listening to this AMTA-Pro podcast as Alan Solomon captures the spirit of celebration for a full-house of music therapists, ranging from undergraduate students to therapists with up to 50 years experience. After listening to Alan’s historical overview of our profession, click on part 2 of this unique lecture – an incredible musical salute by Ken Medema to the past 60 years with a finale that launches us into the future.
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Ken Medema encapsulated the pure essence of the theme of the 2010 AMTA conference in Cleveland – Rock out of the Past, Roll into the Future – by lighting fires in the hearts of music therapy clinicians, educators, researchers, interns, and students at the inaugural Carol Hampton Bitcon Lecture Series. Listen as Ken shares his music, his experience as a music therapist clinician and advocate, and his extraordinary gift for improvising songs based on stories shared by music therapists across the past 6 decades. The finale of Ken Medema’s lively musical event features the voices, hand-clapping, and toe-tapping of many hundreds of music therapists rockin’ and rollin’ into the future.
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Valerie was born prematurely, and immediately immersed into a world of monitors, lights, and alarms in neonatal ICU. But her critical first days as a one-pound “micro-preemie” (born at 23 weeks, 5 days) also included music from her mother, Robin. Valerie survived and thrived, and, over the years, her mom’s music has helped her with challenges in life and school. Now Valerie is a beautiful young lady – inside and out – with musical talents of her own. Listen to this AMTA-Pro podcast by Valerie’s mother, Robin Spielberg, telling the story of Valerie’s rocky start in life and the impact music and music therapy has had on the whole family.
Click on the text section of Robin’s AMTA-Pro podcast to find several brief but intriguing videos about this musical journey from micro-preemie to pre-teen, and peek at photos of Valerie recording music for Robin’s recently released CD, Sea to Shining Sea: A Tapestry of American Music.
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Jefri Franks has 28 years experience in health care marketing and sales. In 2000, her life changed dramatically when her daughter was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At that point she became the mom of a child on a “harrowing journey” through cancer. Jefri is not a music therapist, but she has unique perspective of music therapy. In this AMTA-Pro Symposium, Jefri shares ways in which her family found outlets and insights through music therapy on the oncology unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Jean Nemeth, MA, MT-BC contracts music therapy services to public schools in Connecticut, working with students in a variety of classroom formats from pre-school through high school. In this AMTA-Pro Symposium, Jean informally discusses one approach to structuring music therapy sessions in inclusive classrooms, including integrated preschool (60/40) and full inclusion elementary classes.
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Anne B. Parker, MA, MHSA, MT-BC, FAMI is the Supervisor of the Wellness Department at Miraval Resort, Tucson, AZ – an internationally renowned wellness and health resort. After over 15 years of professional experience in general, psychiatric, and rehabilitation hospitals, Anne has focused the last 15 year of her professional work in a wellness model working with applications of music therapy with clients undergoing cancer treatment, dealing with chronic illness including stress disorders, as well as mental health issues, and life transitions of all kinds. In this podcast, Anne presents a wellness model and its integration with music therapy, particularly drawing from theoretical approaches and research in the areas of mindfulness and positive psychology.
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Marcia J. Lajoie, MM, MT-BC is a music therapist and music educator at Massachusetts Hospital School serving children age 7-22 with multiple disabilities. Beyond holding traditional music therapy groups and individual sessions, she has formed a relationship with the Hospital School’s Pain Management Team to offer alternative strategies for patients. This AMTA.Pro Symposium begins with an informal conversation with Pain Management Team members talking about the evolution of the group. The symposium continues with an excerpt from an actual session illustrating the collaboration between professionals with guided meditation storytelling accompanied by improvised music. Following the brief session excerpt, music therapist Marcia Lajoie shares some observations from that session and about the therapeutic collaboration.
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The William W. Sears Distinguished Lecturer at the annual AMTA conference in San Diego in November, 2009 was Aniruddh Patel, PhD. The William Sears Memorial Fund was established in memory of a National Association for Music Therapy leader whose membership dated back to the Association’s formative years in the early 1950s. The mission of the Sears Memorial Fund is to advance the knowledge of music therapy through distinguished speakers who are authorities in a field of interest to music therapy. This AMTA.Pro Symposium, a benefit exclusively for AMTA members, features “Building Bridges Between Music Neuroscience and Music Therapy,” Dr. Patel’s Sears Lecture at the 2009 AMTA annual conference You may click to listen to the audio podcast or click to watch the vodcast of the 2009 Sears Lecture.
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Barbara J. Crowe, MMT, MT-BC, Director of Music Therapy at Arizona State University, has had a long-term interest in music therapy theory and the other uses of sound and music for health and healing. In this AMTA.Pro Symposium, Barbara provides an overview of some of the many sound healing practices and addresses their relationship to music therapy. She also provides guidance about working collaboratively and positively with individuals from some of these other disciplines.
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John Abel, MPH, MT-BC serves as both music therapist and rehab therapy supervisor at Wesley Woods Hospital of Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. In this acute care geriatric rehab hospital, John conducts group and individual music therapy sessions with individuals experiencing a variety of physical, emotional and cognitive challenges, and he supervises other therapists, rehabilitation techs, and administrative staff. In this AMTA.Pro Symposium, John describes the development of a successful partnership between the music therapist and the wound care staff at the hospital. Click to listen to the podcast, and check out the short video description of this program below the outline.
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Bridget Doak, Ph.D, MT-BC, has 25 years clinical experience in music therapy and has been an adjunct instructor of music therapy at Augsburg College for 14 years. This AMTA.Pro Symposium focuses on her experience providing music therapy for adolescents in crisis who are clients in an inpatient mental health program located in a large general hospital.
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This AMTA.Pro LiveReport is from the Southwestern AMTA regional conference in Amarillo, Texas in March, 2010. You can hear the sounds of the conference in the background as several dozen music therapy professionals and students share brief, informal comments during the conference while zipping from session to session, building their skills and sharpening their expertise in the vital, growing field of music therapy.
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