CoNNeCTioNS T h e N e w s l e t t e r o f M u s i c f o r P e o p l e: Fall 2016

30th Anniversary, October, 2016

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF MUSIC MAKING!!

IN THIS ISSUE: • Page 2: - Gratitude • Page 2: 30 for 30 Fundraising Campaign • Page 3-7: Jan Hittle - MFP Celebrates 30 Years: Interviews with Participants at the 30th Anniversary Celebration • Page 8-10 : David Rudge - Mindfulness Through Music • Page 11: Mary Knysh- Letter from the MLP Chair: The Art of Imrpovisation 2016 • Page 12-14: Jan Hittle - We Turned 30! Highlights from the 30th Anniversary Workshop Weekend • Page 15-16: Jim Oshinsky - Kudos to David Darling • Page 16: Carol Purdy - Book Review: Steal Like and Artist by Austin Kleon • Page 17: Congratulations to our MLP Graduates- Alison Weiner and Alina Plourde • Page 18-19: MUSICAL Advertisements • Page 20: Jane Buttars - Improvised Music Harvest Workshop, 2016 • Page 21: Lynn Saltiel - News from Lynn Saltiel and the MFP Improv Orchestra • Page 22: Mary Knysh - Book Reveiw: The Fear of Singing Breakthrough Program: Learn to Sing Even if You Can’t Carry a Tune, by Nancy Salwen • Page 23: Calendar of Events and Who We Are; Advertise!

Page 1 Gratitude From David Darling Dear MFP Community, I wanted to send all of you my love and gratitude. Your support is a blessing. I felt so overjoyed and grateful to celebrate our community at our 30th Anniversary Celebration this past October. Thank You to the staff and the breakout and elective leaders for their tremendous skills in organizing and presenting at our anniversary event. Thank You to the graduating duo of Alison Weiner and Alina Plourde for their “Standing Ovation Performances” – what a treat to witness! Thank You to those of you who contributed to our 30 for 30 fundraising campaign. Thank You and congratulation’s to those of you who have published your music and art. I was so grateful to receive these special cd’s and books given as gift’s to me at the anniversary. One gift I received was Nancy Salwen’s beautiful book which is reviewed on page 22 of this newsletter- check it out! Thank You for celebrating with me! It was rejuvenating to my spirit to spend the weekend making music with you. It was amazing to appreciate together the past evolution of this organization. I’m so proud of it and all the people involved with it over the past THIRTY years! WOW! I’m very excited about this new way of summarizing the Music for People mission with “Mindfulness through Music” and if it can help bring our message to a new public. Please see David Rudge’s article in this newsletter which is so thoughtful on this idea. With Love and Gratitude to you all. David Darling

Music for People Celebrates 30 Years! Dear MFP Supporter:

Those of us who had the opportunity to attend the recent MFP 30th Anniversary celebration at Stony Point are still riding high from the outpouring of music, love, and connection we experienced. The weekend was truly uplifting and included several inspirational sessions led by David Darling. It was also a chance to mark the beginning of our efforts to implement a new, sustainable course for MFP programming that will lead us into the next 30 years. We have designated an Action Team to work with the board to chart new directions for MFP leading to a model which expands our ability to bring the work of Da- vid Darling into the world. During this time of transition, your support is needed to build a financial bridge to this future vision. You can help by being part of our Give 30 for 30 campaign. We have determined that in order for us to reach our new place of financial sustainability we need to raise $20,000 by the end of 2016. This will help meet our expenses for the upcoming year as well as support the development of new programming. Thanks to the en- thusiastic support of MFP’ers who attended the Stony Point weekend, we have already raised about $7,000 towards our goal. Why $20,000? By our calculations we will need $10,000 to support our basic operations, $5,000 to support our promotional/marketing efforts, and $5,000 to support program development costs. Ambitious? Yes, but this effort is worth it. We all know how much this work means to our world and by giving now as part of this effort you become a founder of the “new MFP.” You can be a part of this historic effort by giving at these levels and receiving the following discounts in recognition of your contribution. • Player: $30-$99 * If everyone on our mailing list donated at the Player level giving “30 for 30” we would reach our goal. • Improviser: $100-$299 * Enjoy 15% off tuition at a Music for People workshop! If two hundred of us donated at the Improviser Level, we would reach our goal. • Mentor: $300-$499 * Enjoy 25% off tuition at a Music for People workshop! • Creator: $500 or more * Enjoy 50% off tuition at a Music for People workshop! Please join your fellow MFP’ers in building a bridge to the next 30 years of mindful, joyous music-making. Thank You, Music for People Board of Directors Neil Tatar, Jane Buttars, Ron Kravitz, David Rudge, Andy Smith, Todd Rogers Page 2 Music for People Celebrates 30 Years! How Is This Work Alive in You? Interviews with Participants at the 30th Anniversary Celebration Some participants at the 30th Anniversary Celebration were asked how the work of Music for People was alive in them. Here’s a condensed version of their responses. For links to the full interviews, visit: http://musicforpeople.org/wp/videos-30th-anniversary-celebration/ A special thanks to Ingrid Bredenberg and Sharon Little for recording the interviews.

Interview with Betsy Bevan: I’ve been with Music for People since about 1990. Music for People has helped lift me to the point where I could do more my life purpose. Which for me is sharing the beauty and the joy of my creative life — which is through painting and through composing and improvising, and now I can share it out. I’m a long time Zen meditator so to blend the meditation with spiritual words — poetry — and original music and is part of my life purpose. People after they see my paintings and after they hear the music the musicians created together, they feel joyful and lifted up like I do. I couldn’t have done that without Music for People.

Interview with Eric Edberg: So I discovered Music for People about 1995 or so. I had just started improvising on my own and I found a recording of David Darling in a record store. I came to what was then called Improvising Chamber Music (now Art of improvisation). It really changed my life. Having a way of relating to people and making music with other people in an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard. And then I took it back to the university where I teach, DePauw University in Indiana. Freshman when they come in, I introduce them to Release that I learned from David: “This is one of the most valuable things that you’re going to learn in college.” Now alumni come back and they say “I teach this to all my students.” It’s so fantastic.”

Interview with Ingrid Bredenberg: I first participated in Music for People back in 1984 at Omega Institute. Well, first of all what really came alive to me in the work not only was the courage to improvise and to make music, but I got my dancer back. I was a mover, but I had figured that since I wasn’t dancing professionally, or I didn’t even take a lot of classes, that I wasn’t a dancer. And just like I’ve now learned that we’re all musicians, I reclaimed my dancer. How that shows up in my life — the music making, the movement, the whole presence — is in my work with leaders. I’ve realized how important it is for leaders to understand the importance of silence…. And to give them permission as a technique to make room for things to occur, to arise. We do that through a variety of activities. Some of them from Music for People. The work is alive. And it’s getting to leaders, and I’m excited about that.

Page 3 Interview with Jan Hittle: To me Music for People was such an important part of a musical journey. When I heard Bobby McFerrin’s Medicine Man , it opened my eyes and so I went looking for an improvisation teacher. Finally I got to experi- ence David Darling. And one of the first things he said was “your music is import- ant…your music is really important to the world…you need to record it.” And it was one of the few people who gave those wonderful musical messages to me. You know, a lot of my teachers in music were like “Oh, you need to do this better… oh, you need to work on this.” Whereas David was just “Ahh, Wow! Your music is great.” And this music journey still continues because I was so scared to make music, to make music in an improvisational way without notes on a page. And I am finally learning to let that fear release a little bit. And I have a feeling that’s going to be a life-long process — learning to be more present in this music, in this moment in this music, and therefore be more present for myself in all areas of my life.

Interview with Jim Oshinsky: I’ve been doing this for probably 30 years, since the beginning. I had the privilege of meeting David Darling through because I was a fan of the Paul Winter Consort. It was great to see a musician as free and as broad as he was, especially when he played with the Consort. Paul Winter ran Music Villages that were week-long retreats. David Darling was a guest at the First Music Village, and he put forward a vision of an organization that would make music accessible so that everybody could be a participant in music, rather than a witness. It would break down the barrier between the elite performers and the general public — that everybody’s musical. That just took root in me because I was an amateur jam band kind of guy. But what came from that is that I teach improvisation at a university. I’ve been doing that for 5 years, and we do all-improvised concerts at the end, going organically from whole group to part group, listening for what’s needed next. I come up at the end and include the audience. This group of 15 folks who have been improvising together the whole semester is in some hot jam or whatever, and then I bring in the audience — vocal or body percussion or something — and then I fade out the class, and it’s just the newbies playing and they’re cooking. This is what I mean that everybody’s musical. That lesson that I’ve been teaching at university level never would have happened if I didn’t go to the Music Village and if I didn’t start following the vision that David Darling started.

Interview with Joelle Danant: Music for People — I love Music for People. And the whole process was a magical journey. I feel like the universe orchestrated it and is still doing that. The way that it started it was very amazing because I feel like the universe planted seeds, little by little, gradually. I was meant to sing, just for the love of it. I remember that there was one particular moment where it was one of my very first improvisations. I really felt it in my heart that I really wanted to sing, not necessarily by myself. I loved the community. It was so inviting. I went into the circle and I said “I really want to sing and if there’s anyone here who feels called to sing with me, please join.” And then three amazing people came from the community who are like senior musicians — Emily Metcalf, Suan Armstrong and Jane Butters. We did this amazing quartet where I actually feel like music was singing through me. I was just allowing it to happen. One of those magical moments. And that’s what Music for People has been doing for me. As David Darling says, “Just show up. Just show up. And then just trust the process.”

Page 4 Interview with Kevin Cosgrove: I’ve gotten so much out of Music for People it’s really hard to condense it in two minutes. Music for People for me changed my life, as it does for so many people who attend. Profoundly. I’d gone through so many years of playing. And I’d actually given up playing because I couldn’t pick up an instrument without being completely flooded with negative self-talk. I saw David Darling do a clinic, and in that clinic, I had two friends — one of whom was more uptight than me and one who would roll on the ground singing. I decided that I should be closer to the one who was rolling on the ground and singing completely uninhibited. David’s work in the group and community of Music for People brought me back to that sense of awe. Compared to when I went to Berklee out of high school, after I was there for a year I couldn’t play at all because everything I did was wrong and I was like 17. There were so many things going through my head as opposed to listening, connecting. So I’ve used Music for People techniques the past couple of years. My brother got sick in China, and I couldn’t sleep. I ended up meeting all these Chinese musicians hanging out in the street. And I can’t speak a word of Chinese, but they’re passing this instrument around. And I said, “I can’t play,” but then I realized I wasn’t being very Music-for-Peo- ple about this. “Use your ear.” And I was able to play with an orchestra in China by listening, playing a lot of silence, waiting for that one spot and filling it nicely. I had the same experience when I went to Africa last year. I got to meet a gentleman named Baaba Maal who was showing me how to do a guitar part. And I said, “Oh my God, I’m going to blow this. He’s trying to teach me. I’ll never get it.” And then I realize, be- cause of Music for People, I don’t really have to get it. As soon as I gave up the idea of having to do it right, of course, I did it. It was easy. So much of what I’ve learned from Music for People as a musician is getting out of my own way. And of course, everyone needs a community, and the community of people here is just supportive and wonderful. So I’m blessed.

Interview with Mark Hinkley: I’m at the Music for People workshop in Stony Point. The first time back in probably 8 or 9 years. I joined the organization in 1989-1990, was president [of the board] for a while and watched it evolve and go through highs and lows. I’m very gratified to see that it’s so lively, so inspiring to people still. I’ve always thought that ignorance should be valued. Ignorance is a harsh word, but once you displace it with knowledge, it’s gone forever. So you can’t retrieve the kind of openness that we have here at Music for People by intruding all sorts of classical theory, in my opinion. So the more open the players are, the improvisors are, to how you listen to people, how you treat people, the generosity that goes on in the groups has unending meaning in life with people, partners, businesses — music particularly. So I do music still. I improvise. That’s all I really know how to do. I teach little kids a little how to improvise, and I join bands in hopes they will let me improvise. So it’s sort of a gorilla approach to music that I hope all of you get to enjoy all your lives. No reason not to.

Interview with Patricia Mulholland: I would say that this work has had a profound effect on my life. I became a music therapist after my work with David and Music for People. And the name of my practice is “Be Your Note,” a quote from a Rumi poem which is very aligned with One Quality Sound. I use One Quality Sound. I use Solo/ Drone, Solo/Ostinato in a variety of clinical and wellness situations. So I’d like to tell one story. A gentle- man called me and wondered if I would meet his wife who had been aphasic for 12 years with a stroke and he thought

Page 5 it would be good to work with me. She used to sing, and so he brought her and it was presented as if I would be working with her. We begin with One Quality Sound, the three of us, and this was maybe unexpected by the husband, but pretty soon he was in. And so now they are working and singing and being together as a couple. He’s never been a singer — he’s harmonizing. It’s a very rewarding piece in my life. So I have a passion for working with women and the voice. But essentially it’s being able to make that One Quality Sound and hold it midst the chaos that you may be feeling externally and internally. Finally, when I’m in my mindful moments, I will begin my music practice by sitting at the piano, closing my eyes and just putting my fingers on the keys. Usually it’s this amazing chord and I just have to find it and deepen into it. The practice is for me to just stay with the chord and not feel like I have to create a product from it. Those are some ways it’s manifesting in my life.

Interview with Paul Butler: I got asked the question of how Music for People is alive in my life. And it’s still very much alive. I’m still playing music all the time and improvising most of the time whether it’s or early jazz or swing or modern or something from another culture. I’m very grateful to have found Music for People because it gave me permission to be able to do that, and I feel very blessed because I get to do that. It’s still very much alive, and I find that and I find the more I do it, the deeper it gets. The deeper it gets, the more amazing it is. It’s pretty awesome. Thank you David Darling for this gift that you shared. I’m grateful and thankful for you. Thanks.

Interview with Sharon Little: I’m a grad from 2000. What really struck me was when David started, he just started making music. I’m a classically trained musician and was absolutely afraid to do anything that wasn’t written down. It was such a relief and a freedom to start being able to play, which is part of my nature anyway, but somehow in music and my instruments, the play wasn’t there. So now the play lives in me. And it started going into my teaching. I’ve seen such release and transformation and play and fun and opening from people that I played with and worked with. It also lives in me because so many friends here I’ve had now for 15 or 20 years. And I know as soon as I meet with them, we immediately start together and we don’t have to break the ice. It lives with me just as a way that I go through life. I start singing when I wouldn’t normally have done that. I don’t even know anymore what it was like beforehand. I just know that this is just a part of me, and I don’t know what it would have been like had I not. There are very few people in my life like this. I think about what my life might have been had I not come into Music for People, and for that I’m just so thankful. It’s too much fun.

Interview with Stephanie Hirschmann: I came into contact with Music for People and David Darling when I was pursuing Chungliang Al Huang. Chungliang and David were doing a workshop called “Dancing Tao, Dancing Cello.” I love music. It’s always been part of my life. I’ve always been able to sing when things are crazy. So I learned how to dance. And one day I had a free weekend, and it was Music for People. One of

Page 6 the biggest attractions to the program, aside from the music and the people, is the things that David would say: “[Laughing…] There’s no wrong note… Sing what you play, play what you sing… Silence is your friend.” The list goes on. “I’m not greater than you. I’m not better than you. I just have more experience.” So a lot of these things spoke to the broken person inside of me on the humanistic level. That here I could be in a safe place. And so between the dance and the singing and the music, now I play with rubber duckies and rubber pigs. It’s a wonderful journey, and the world is an instrument starting with your heart and the heart beat.

Interview with Susan Rosati: I came to Music for People in 1996. I never sang professionally or had any kind of training or anything like that. But when I came to Music for People, for two years I sat behind a drum, petrified, and at the end of my second year, I just decided “I’m going to sing.” I started singing, and I got so much support and love. And two years later, I had to develop a project for graduation so I decided “Why don’t I just do a CD? Yeah, I’ll just do a CD.” I’ve never been in a recording studio or anything like that. I did a CD. And I also did a concert. When I invited all my friends, they thought I was bringing people in to sing. They didn’t know that I could sing. 175 of my friends came and family and everybody, and I remember being at the top of the loft and I was so scared. I was watching all these people, and I had high heels on and this long red dress and my mind said: “Oh my God. We’re not going to be able to do this.” And something in me said “Get out of my way, and let me sing,” and I did it. I did the concert. I did a CD. Music for People, it really helped me find my voice. My voice I feel like is my spirit, my soul.

Interview with Tracey Dillon: I graduated in October 2014, two years ago. Music for People lives in me… It’s brought back a kind of playing that I did as a child on piano that was very joyful, and I realized as an adult was a way for me to process. When I got to places and ideas in my life where I was stuck. It’s more than that now. I do little movies with soundtracks, and I do long-distance improvisation with friends that I’ve made here at Music for People. But where it’s really impacted my life professionally? I’m an architect. It has made me really think about the quality of space and sound in the places that I design. It’s brought a certain kind of poetry to my work.

Interview with Valeria Mastrorsa: I am a classically trained pianist. This is my fourth time here at Music for People. And what’s amazing for me is that I have been composing after I started, right after. What I call composing is basically I sit and I improvise, but I register [record] those moments and they become gifts from me and for people that I care for. I send them. I name them. And people are very happy with them because they are like my musical gifts. The way that I play the piano changed after that. I’ve been able to find sounds and inspiration that I’ve been looking for a long time as a classical pianist. So I have changed.

Page 7 Mindfulness Through Music By David Rudge Recently, when David Darling was asked to summarize the work of Music for People, he replied that it is “mindfulness through music”. Mindfulness is a word that is used a lot these days, but what is it exactly? Well, we can start by viewing it as the opposite of mindlessness, or “ignorance”, according to Oriental thought. “Wakefulness” is another way of putting it. It is waking up to the present moment. One way to wake up to what is happening right now is to carefully watch your habits: actions, speech, etc. A way to do that, in a very pure and clear way, is to sit and watch your thoughts, since these give birth to actions. This is practicing being wide awake; being very present, with great focus. Vispassana is the Buddhist word for “mindfulness” meditation. This is more of a “consciousness discipline” than a “spiritual practice”, although it can certainly be both. It is the practice of getting in touch with your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Breathe in and out. As thoughts come and go, return your concentration back to the breath. Notice the thought, then return. Pay attention. Just watch the breath, do not “make” the breath. Do not do. Just be. Just be here. Just be here now. In music, of course, this would be to listen, and as Ram Dass said, “The quieter we are, the more we can hear.” By doing this, not only greater awareness, but acceptance and appreciation of the present moment is cultivated. It is the opposite of taking life for granted. This mindfulness can also be viewed, on a more profound level, as “heartfulness”. Indeed, the Chinese have one word for both the mind and the heart: Heartmind.

Saint-Exupéry phrased it so elegantly when he wrote, On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur (“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”) in Le Petit Prince. The path to getting to this place is to leave the rational mind alone and experience the other side of our brain. Music for People’s practices aim to facilitate that. When fully engaged in them we can indeed go “out of our mind and come to our senses”, as Paul Winter used to advocate. Of course, we ultimately aim to be balanced between the right and left brain, all the while realizing, as Jon Kabat-Zinn once stated, “Our ability to think, and reason and analyze is part of being human, but if we are not careful, our thinking can easily crowd out other equally miraculous parts of our being. Wakefulness is often the first casualty.” If we are not careful. . . how often “overthinking” our music-making hampers us, and our listening, response ability, and heartfelt music making. Teachers of Mindfulness believe that in order for one to experience more than short moments of clarity and awareness, concentration must be strengthened, as a technique of sustaining awareness. In classical mediation training, this is developed before actual mediation is even taught. Page 8 One of the techniques Music for People uses in this area of one pointed concentration is what we call “Steady State.” This is similar to much ethnic music where trancelike repetitive rhythms are played for long periods of time. Whether it be Tibetan chanting or West African drumming, brainwaves are altered by doing this, and we are biologically, and musically changed. Henry David Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond in Massachusetts as an experiment in mindfulness. He said, “I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” This is the man you said, “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” How similar to what we believe in Music for People! Many years ago, to illustrate this concept David Darling articulated the idea of “Quality VS Quantity” as a way to honor our own personal and musical essence. The idea that “one quality sound”, expressed from our core, would be not only sufficient, but also more valuable than a large outpouring of conceptual and meaningless expressions, is as radical an idea now as it was in the 1980’s. Indeed, it has its roots in what modern Buddhism calls “radical acceptance”, the view that we, along with all our imperfections, are a miracle--and that art is an expression of this. This is voluntary simplicity; intentionally doing only one thing at a time and making sure you are there for it. On my desk I have a reminder by the Zen poet Wu Men: “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best season of your life.” Indeed.

And we should remember that mindfulness is not only about feeling peaceful. It is about feeling the way you feel, no matter what that is, but with conscious awareness. It’s not only about making the mind empty or still—although that can be cultivated naturally, along this path, but more about experiencing the present moment fully. Wu-Wei

This is the character for “non action” or “doing without doing”, an important concept in Chinese culture. It is an action that does not involve struggle or excessive force. It is when our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment with the flow of life. Of course, we can see how this is integral to free improvisation. Many years ago, we used to say, “Play a note. . . and ‘God’ will give you the next one.” Being deeply relaxed, of course, is part of this process, allowing us to listen to our own inner sound wisdom and follow it without the hindrance of a second thought. Thoreau would often sit in his doorway for hours, just watching and listening, as the sounds of nature kept changing. “There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. I love a broad margin to my life.” This is amazingly similar to the Zen proverb that reads: “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” When we are this quiet, we notice many things. As we go through life, as we progress through an improvisation, and even as we “read the room’, if we are facilitating a group. And, all of this can be applied to making music on an instrument. As an instrumentalist, I’ve always loved the story by the Taoist Chuang-tzu, and feel it illustrates this most clearly.

Page 9 Prince Wen Hui’s cook was cutting up an ox. Out went a hand, down went a shoulder, he planted a foot, he pressed with a knee, the ox fell apart. With a whisper, the bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! Like a sacred dance, like ‘the mulberry grove,’ like ancient harmonies! ‘Good work!’ the prince exclaimed, ‘your method is faultless!’ ‘Method?’ said the cook laying aside his cleaver, ‘what I follow is Tao beyond all methods!” “When I first began to cut of oxen I would see before me the whole ox all in one mass. After three years I no longer saw the distinctions. “But now, I see nothing with the eye. My whole being apprehends. My sense are idle. The spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line, by the secret opening, the hidden space, my cleaver finds its own way. I cut through no joint, chop no bone. “A good cook needs a new chopper once a year – he cuts. A poor cook needs a new one every month – he hacks! “I have used this same cleaver nineteen years. It has cut up a thousand oxen. Its edge is as keen as if newly sharpened. “There are spaces in the joints; the blade is thin and keen: when this thinness finds that space there is all the room you need! It goes like a breeze! Hence I have this cleaver nineteen years as if newly sharpened! “True, there are sometimes tough joints. I feel them coming, I slow down, I watch closely, hold back, barely move the blade, and whump! the part falls away landing like a clod of . “Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still and let the joy of the work sink in. I clean the blade and put it away.” Prince Wen Hui said, ‘This is it! My cook has shown me how I ought to live my own life!”

The same Wu Wei high level of ease can be applied to music making, whether is as simple as making one quality sound, or playing a concerto. It’s using ones chi instead of so much ego-based effort. It’s certainly what we mean when we say “Relax into your beauty”. The more mindful we are, as an improvisation unfolds, the better we can create it, or help our group create it. Our mindfulness is applied to the Taoist concept of the unplanned spontaneous action. As Lao-Tzu asks us in the Tao te Ching, Do you have the patience to wait Till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving Till the right action arises by itself?

Do we have the patience to be mindful?

Dr. David Rudge is a Graduate of the MfP Leadership Program and is an MfP Staff Teacher and Board Member. He teaches Free- Improvisation in the School of Music at SUNY - Fredonia, where he is also Director of Orchestras and Opera. Besides throughout the US and abroad, he is a performing violinist. He has studied and/or performed with Paul Winter, Paul Horn, Arthur Hull and Don Campbell. He has also performed as conductor with David Darling and Jon- Luc Ponty. David has been involved with Music for People since its inception, has taught Free Improvisation in such diverse settings as Oklahoma State University, the Connecticut and New York Public Schools, the Kiental Center in Switzerland, and the Omega Institute of Holistic Studies, where he was on staff for several summers. This summer he will be on the faculty of Strings Without Boundaries, and eclectic strings workshop in Pittsburgh, PA. He is the Director of the Improv. Collective, which he founded at SUNY-Fredonia. www.fredonia.edu/som/improv

Page 10 Letter from the MLP Chair Mary Knysh Art of Improvisation 2016 “Do not be in a hurry to fill in the spaces between one movement and another; between one sound and another. Open all your senses. See with your whole body. Hear with every part of you. That space between is where all possibilities live.” Terry Beck, Movement Specialist

This August MfP hosted a most unique week long seminar that included an amazing international group of participants! We had friends from our program in Switzerland as well as participants from Holland, Canada and all over the . MfP grads from our three decades as an organization shared their talents throughout the week in the In Depth sessions, the wonderful array of Electives and finally on Thursday in the styles rounds. What I personally loved about the this year’s event was that everyone pitched in to make this AOI a truly remarkable experience. As MfP steps into a new decade, we are in the process of returning to the core roots of this work. David Darling has shared with us that the work grew out of his desire to bring self expressive music back into the lives of everyone, regardless of age or level of experience. This summer at AOI we honored this idea and held the intention of “Mindfulness Through Music” as our week long focus. If accessing our music is as simple as taking a breath and making one quality sound, then truly upon each new breath a new world of possibilities exist for each of us through expressive sound. I opened this article with a quote from Terry Beck as I felt it captured the essence of our creative process. This importance of this work that we do is not focused upon the end result. It is in the journey itself that we have the opportunity to discover ourselves and others through music. We are in the process of evolving our perception of music from a final product destination to the very act and process of making music for which I love to think of the word “musicing”, the verb of active music making. This summer at AOI we opened each and every morning with meditative movement led by dancer and movement specialist Terry Beck. This set the intention for the day and helped to bring us more deeply into our expressive sound and into connection with one another. From this place of deep connection to one another we were able to communicate and express ourselves in new and profound ways. And from this deep level of communication we discovered pathways toward spontaneous music making that ultimately transported us to incredible new possibilities in the realm of music. By the end of the week the group could feel the transformation that was taking place, both personally and as a community. It was powerful to witness and to experience. Terry shared a lovely collection of quotes during the week that I feel are a beautiful representation of our time together. Here are the quotes from Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism and the author of the Tao Te Ching: On seeing: “When you cannot see what is happening, do not stare harder. Relax and look gently with your inner eye.” On silence and stillness: “Silence is a source of Great Strength” Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? On music: “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” In light of what is going on in our country and the world, it is my belief that our work in Music for People is of extraordinary value to our planet more now than ever. Please remember to celebrate one another in sound and to spread the joy of music making with everyone you meet! Page 11 We Turned 30!

Take a peek at Music for People’s 30th Anniversary Celebration weekend. It was so wonderful to have so many of you join us. We’ve gathered some pictures and videos to showcase the highlights. View the video at: http://musicforpeople.org/wp/videos-30th-anniversary-celebration/ A special thanks goes to everyone willing to share their photos and videos with us!

Names ring out across the room as people greet and hug one another. Some people hadn’t seen each other in years. Some may have just met. Everyone shares a love of music. And everyone was there to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this incredible organization.

It was a privilege to have David Darling back at this workshop, offering his teaching wisdom.

Saturday had Teaching Blocks by Mary Knysh and David Rudge where participants learn about, and perform, various Music for People techniques in music improvisation. There was also an announcement starting the $30 for 30 fund-raising campaign.

Page 12 The fall weekend has a graduation ceremony for people having completed four years in the program. This year’s graduates, Alison and Alina, designed a beautiful graduation ceremony having multiple improvisation ensembles with various members of the community that they have gotten to know over the years. The breadth and depth of the improvisations was wonderfully inspiring.

These two graduates join the over 100 graduates of the Musicianship and Leadership Program. 45 of those graduates came together on Saturday! During the weekend, some graduates offered electives; some participated in a grad facilitation fest on Sunday.

Page 13 The Celebration Ceremony Saturday evening opened with David Darling playing the cello, an instrument you fall in love with when you go through the program. Great to hear David play once again! Music for People’s roots are from the Warriors of Magic Mountain workshop at Omega in 1984 with David Darling and Chungling Al Huang. In the upper right picture you can see Bonnie Insull, who co-founded Music for People, dancing in the background and David Rudge playing with David Darling. Also there was Ingrid Bredenberg, shown dancing, who became the first president of the board for Music for People. Susan Golden, organizer of Universal Music Day, presented a proclamation from the Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida acknowledging the contribution of Music for People. The session ended by first sharing our musical stories in small groups and then by each group creating a music improvisation. And how did the evening end? With a Drum Jam! And how did the workshop end? Singing One Quality Sounds - one of them for us stepping out and taking this work into the world.

David Darling summarized the weekend best: “Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude.”

In Music for People you make music at a deep level, forging life-long friendships and connections with others who share your musical journey. Hope to see you at a upcoming workshop!

Page 14 Kudos to David Darling by Jim Oshinsky

It was the summer of 1985, I think. Paul Winter, the saxophonist had decided to host a music camp for grown ups on his farm in northwest Connecticut. I was a fan of the Paul Winter Consort. They were a visionary band in the 1970s, playing an exiting composite of jazz, world music and jam band rock. When they announced at their winter concerts that there would be a summer workshop open to the public, I knew I had to be there. As a newly graduated psychologist, I was looking for help paying for the tuition, and I jumped at the chance to be on the work-study team, coming to the farm on weekends throughout the spring and early summer to prepare the grounds and build the infrastructure for the workshop in an environmentally sensitive way. Whatever we built in the way of trails, outhouses, signs, tables and benches would be disassembled at the end of the event, and the land would return to forest and hay fields.

Although he was no longer touring with the band, David Darling had been inspirational in making me a follower of the Consort. In 1976 they played at my college, the University of Tennessee. David had shown virtuosic chops on the cello, playing in a vast variety of styles from Classical to Indian to Jimi Hendrix, complete with wah-wah effects. Mind blown.

The Music Village workshop at Paul Winter’s farm drew 60-70 amateur and professional musicians from all across the USA. We created a tent village and a rustic outdoor dining area, covered by a tarp. We set up a temporary plastic dam at the riverside to create a swimming hole, and had camp features from volleyball nets to screen houses with massage tables.

The meeting spaces included a huge barn for afternoon and evening music sessions, and a tent in the riverside meadow for morning singing and songwriting activities. We also had an aboriginal sauna with leaders to introduce sweat lodge ceremony and a camp nurse and doctor who used ayurvedic techniques. This was very forward for the mid 1980s.

The activities were designed to transform our group of mostly citified, perhaps uptight, neophytes; to loosen us up to get to our sources of musical inspiration. Every morning we were awoken by a reveille played by Paul Winter and a gang of volunteers. In conspiratorial fashion, wake up call was moved up an hour each day, until by week’s end we were rising at 4am for a silent predawn meditation in the forest. We heard the birds begin and build their symphony, ending with dawn and yoga in a sunrise clearing on the bluffs over the river.

After a breakfast of fresh foods, we moved to the tent for singing classes with Susan Osborn. Susan’s simple and profound approach was to link breath and wordless song, disarming us with group chants and rounds, then offering the opportunity for volunteers to sing their souls with her gentle coaching. Once a singer entered the territory of voicing emotion past fear and judgment, they were often blissful and empowered with extended vocal timbres and range. It was transformational to watch as well as to engage in. The attention and energy of the group fueled each singer to represent us all.

Paul Winter’s afternoon sessions were mainly instrumental, although voices were welcome. We were introduced to a process of improvising in random quartets, mixing styles and backgrounds to create a kind of tribal chamber music, sometimes rocking, sometimes edgy avant garde, and sometimes beautifully lyrical. Paul also invited guest teachers into the evening time slots, and one of those guests from just down the road was David Darling. While Paul was a composer who valued improv, but David was willing to truly do aerial work without a net. He believed in improv as the source and the process, moment by moment by moment. David was the explorer, going to places Paul the scout had pointed out, while staying on safer ground. It was David who connected the primacy of breath and voice with the discipline of instrumental experience when he emphasized “play what you sing, and sing what you play.” Paul manifested. He created the consort as a recording and touring ensemble, a with the metaphorical name Living Music. He made the group into cultural ambassadors, breaking new ground to promote ecological awareness and respect for all living creatures while breaking down political barriers in musical expeditions to the natural sites of when sentiments were strong on both sides. But David was a daredevil. Paul scripted, David improvised. He lived his teaching in a way that honored the content, taking risks that sometimes crashed and burned. And then? Smile. Release. Begin again. Profound and humble.

Page 15 A year or two later, Music for People was born. David the visionary teamed up with Bonnie Insull the manifester. There was the first newsletter, the Musical Bill of Rights, and soon after, the first big summer workshop, Improvising Chamber Music at Keene State University. You all have been part of what came next. More workshops, a training program, the creation of a community and a movement to change how we view participation in music so that music is for everyone - a birthright through which we can respect the voice of every individual. I heard that call loudly the first time I heard David Darling play. As we celebrate 30 years of Music for People, I want to offer gratitude to the man who inspired the organization. Although there are now hundreds of us who carry the message of MfP into public schools, concert halls, Internet videos and college classrooms, we owe David Darling our enduring thanks for his example of inspired teaching, performing and recording. Namaste, brother.

A Book Review by MLP Graduate Carol Purdy Steal Like and Artist by Austin Kleon This book reads like a breeze and will rev up your creative juices! At 5” square and about one inch thick, it will fit in a briefcase or backpack for ready inspiration anywhere, anytime.

The author cites several famous visual artists, composers and writers to show how they use imitation and outright thievery to spawn new works. For example, relevant to Pablo Picasso’s blatant declaration that “Art is Theft”, Kleon expounds: “Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and re imagine to discover your own path...... The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. They left their lesson plans in their work.” Kleon encourages readers to surround themselves with good music, art and literature. The more good things we have to choose from, the more possibilities emerge.

This little book is filled with fun and easy creative games, amusing charts and visuals, as well as practical instructions for things such as keeping a logbook, planning your day, and even planning your love life. There are great hints throughout the book; “Save your ideas”...... record your licks - you may want to use them later. Don’t wait until you are “ready” to start. You are ready now! If you can’t find your own voice, copy others for now. Leave your instruments, paint brushes, pens and pencils out and ready where you can see them and pick them up easily. Be boring. Play and sing scales. Ideas will come. Share your work with others. And, finally...leave your house. Inspiration can strike anywhere!”

“Steal like an Artist” is published by Workman Publishing, N.Y. And can be purchased for $12.95 in the U.S.

Carol Purdy: Since graduating from the MLP program, Carol has served on the New York State School Music Association Committee for Composition and Improvisation. She retired from four decades of teaching stringed instruments and directing orchestras at the North Shore Suzuki School on Long Island , and the North Merrick public school system. She has performed as a cellist in the improv ensemble, WEAVE, in and is a continuing member of the Island Chamber Symphony. She currently provides MfP style workshops for public school teachers and includes improvisation as a regular part of her private cello instruction. Carol believes that Music for People is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to her!!

Page 16 Congratulations to the new MLP Graduates, October 2016

Alison Weiner is the creator and caretaker of mahaloArts, a company which develops and presents endeavors of positive, constructive and engaging manner that underscore gratefulness for being alive (http://mahaloArts.com). With degrees in architecture (BS), jazz studies (BM) and music composition (MA) under her belt, Alison is joyful earning her keep as a musician by teaching, performing, composing, and recording. She is a graduate of Music For People’s Musicianship and Leadership Program and an active member of its community, honing and expanding her improvisational and facilitation skills so that she can better do her part to demonstrate that embracing the universal language of music can help save the world. In October 2016 she relocated studioMahalo to the fabulous little town of Saxapahaw in North Carolina, smack in between the Triangle and Triad regions, where music and the creative arts will vigorously intersect.

Alina Plourde is constantly inspired by the beauty of musicians connecting and improvising in the moment, and by the simplicity and depth of Music for People’s philosophy and techniques. A graduate of the Musicianship and Leadership program, she is amazed by and grateful for the way that MfP has infused and enlivened all of her work. Alina performs frequently with Symphoria, Syracuse’s professional orchestra, and is a founding member of the New Leaf Ensemble, an improvising chamber music group. She teaches at Syracuse University and at Onondaga Community College, where she also teaches an MfP-style improvisation class. She has a studio of private oboe students, and works with younger students at the Montessori School of Syracuse, weaving im- provisation into classes that include Orff instruments, recorder, and world music. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and recipient of a doctorate from the University of Illinois, Alina lives in the Syracuse, NY area with her family.

Page 17 Morning gigs available for musicians who love kids!

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And our educational and business support has helped thousands of music lovers, parents, and educators find a path to meaningful work as Music Together® business owners and teachers. As a Music Together teacher, you’ll create musical relationships with the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in your classes and empower their parents to create a more musical home life for them.

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Page 18 ! ! TYMPANUM David Darling, cello

! ! ! Jane Buttars, piano MfP Friends ~ Come! duets freely improvised at the moment of recording

Music that moves from the dramatic and virtuosic, the peaceful and play- ful, Sing with us in the to moments sus- West of Ireland! pended in time with Gerry & Denise Dignan ! Each piece is a journey, imagined and created …on the cliffs…in the age-old pubs with the locals… step by exciting step. Their focus is so intense that …by the fairy rings… it snatches you and demands your full attention. ! Creative dance teachers– here is a gold mine. Magical Musical Ireland 2017 ---Barbara Figge Fox, NJ Arts Reviewer July 24-August 3, 2017 “A very magical and special time.” CDBaby.com or Amazon.com 1-815-439-3701 Email: [email protected] ! ! Return to Child Music for People’s Guide to Improvising Music and Authentic Group Leadership written and compiled by Jim Oshinsky “Return to Child shows how to practice improvisation individually and collectively, how to teach such practice, and how to encourage it to flourish in the world.” - W.A. Mathieu, author of The Listening Book and Har- monic Experience

Return to Child is packed with a lifetime of personal learning, growth, and leadership skills.” - Arthur Hull, author of Drum Circle Spirit

“Return to Child contains a wonderful set of recipes for musical teamwork, and for finding the right balance between structure and spontaneity in free improvisa- tion. Bravo!” - Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play: Impro- visation in Life and Art

Order Return to Child: http://www.ReturnToChild.com

Page 19 Improvised Music Harvest Workshop: September 16-18, 2016 at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, NC

The 2016 Improvised Music Harvest was met with beautiful weather, great food, wonderful teaching, and a gathering of beautiful “musicking” artists who made the pilgrimage from as far as Massachusetts and New Orleans. This past September was the fourth time that Wildacres Retreat has hosted the gathering, on top of a mountain with breath-taking views near the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, thanks to the Blumenthal Foundation. Under the guidance of staff members Patrick Whitehead, Rob Falvo, Christie Clavio, Alison Weiner, Jane Buttars, and Harold McKinney, participants explored Music For People Basics, Creative Motion, Found Objects As A Way Into Improvisation, Accessing Rhythm For Improvisation, and Vocal Play And Improvisational Landscapes.

The Saturday Evening of Improvised Chamber Music was so filled with inspiring moments that we all wanted to have three rounds, which took us even deeper. The music-making and fun culminated Sunday morning in a transporting on-the-floor vocal circle, and a rip-roaring Dixieland Band march to the outdoor stone fireplace. How grateful we are to have had this opportunity to be together in such a loving community, and to share our Selves through our own music!

Stay tuned for our 5th annual event at Wildacres in Fall 2017!

Page 20 News from Lynn Saltiel and the MFP Improv Orchestra: Music For People Improv Orchestra: Transformation Through Improvisation: From Performance to Life Skills. On May 1, 2016, I had the wonderful opportunity to present at the National Association of Social Workers New Jersey Chapter Annual Conference and Exhibition-The 2016 Meeting of the Profession. The conference sold out, with over 1000 social workers in attendance! I was able to fulfill a longstanding vision that I have had to connect my two worlds of clinical social work and the importance of music for connection, creativity, health, and wellness. I was joined by a group of extraordinary MFP musicians and others in the presentation entitled: Music For People Improv Orchestra: Transformation Through Improvisation: From Performance to Life Skills. Participants and the musicians alike raved about the presentation. Here are some of the comments: “This was the best program we have EVER had, thank you! “I was wearing a stress meter. I looked down and my heart rate had gone down considerably.” “I didn’t want to leave. I never had so much fun since I was a kid.” “...the best part for me was that it was purposeful and pertinent to the Social Workers and their lives, and this is HUGE.” Attendees experienced and participated in many One Quality Sounds and lots of Ooh and Yay energy for sure! As a follow-up from the success of this event, I had the honor in October to receive my county’s Outstanding Service Award for 2016 from NASW-NJ. I am so thankful to be a part of our wonderful Music for People community. I am inspired for future possibilities and to continue to share this work in the world. Let each of us be inspired by David Darling’s vision in Music For People, to connect with ourselves, to connect with others, and to share our creative expressions. The world needs us.

Page 21 A Book Review by MLP Chair Mary Knysh The Fear of Singing Breakthrough Program: Learn to Sing Even if You Think You Can’t Carry a Tune! By Nancy Salwen The Fear of Singing Breakthrough Program is an accessible, user friendly, and inspiring book for those afraid to sing as well as experienced and professional singers. It is a remarkable guide through the process of re- discovering the profound genius of the authentic singing voice that exists within each of us. For those just beginning to step bravely into the world of singing, this book provides a clear, comprehensive, and supportive guide toward getting over internal doubt and fear and making the journey into the transformative possibilities of the human voice. For experienced and professional singers, this book is a brilliant reminder as to the sheer joy of authentically reconnecting with singing for the sake of celebrating life in sound! Nancy has given us a great gift by creating a book that will most certainly not only inspire you but will provide you with all of the support needed to discover or rediscover the extraor- dinary and unique singer within each of us! The book is available on Amazon.com. Or visit www.FearOfSinging.com, or email nancy@ salwen.net to order directly or get more information.

BOOK BLURB: The Fear of Singing Breakthrough Program: Learn to Singing Even if You Think You Can’t Carry a Tune! 234-page book includes access to online audio tracks and videos to help with exercises. Have you bought into the idea that singing is an “Either you have it or you don’t” kind of thing? Well, that is just not true — You can learn to sing! Singing is a skill that can be learned, just like any other skill. However, because singing is so primal and meaningful to us as human beings, when we are discouraged, we are discouraged to the core. Our confidence and self-esteem are affected. Most would-be singers stop singing completely, no questions asked. But many who “can’t sing” on some level wish they could… • More than just a “how-to” book! With guided reflection, explore and dismantle your fears, growing as a singer and as an individual. • Audio and video tracks available 24/7. Practice whenever and wherever you like. • User friendly, designed for inexperienced or fearful “non-singers” who have never recieved singing training or who want to give singing another chance • Quick and simple noise making “icebreaker” exercises are unique ways to dissolve anxiety and help make your new singing journey playful and fun • Dozens of writing, listening, and, of course, singing exercises to help you build confidence and discover your inner singer • Includes a warm-up sheet and practice ideas to keep you going • Ideas for next steps in your singing journey!

Written by Nancy, a supportive teacher with 6 years of experience helping “non-singers” find their voice.

Page 22 CALENDAR OF IMPORTANT DATES Who we are... Feb. 10-12, 2017: Music for People was founded in 1988 by two Adventures in Improvisation, Immaculata visionary classical musicians, David Darling and University, Frazer, PA (MLP Training Program) Bonnie Insull. Music for People (MfP) is a nonprofit organization that promotes self-expression Feb. 17-19, 2017: through music improvisation and the creative MLP Switzerland Program Kientalerhof, Kiental, arts. MfP was founded on the belief that music Switzerland is a natural creative expression available to everyone. All styles of music are celebrated, April 7-12, 2017: and players at all levels of experience are MLP Switzerland Program Kientalerhof, Kiental, welcomed. We formed a network in 1986, Switzerland became a nonprofit organization in 1988, and created a training program in 1991. MfP has May 5-7, 2017: over 100 certified graduates of our Musicianship Adventures in Improvisation, Stony Point Center, Stony and Leadership Program in the United States, Point, NY (MLP Training Program) Canada and Europe where they present programs for schools, community groups and June 23-25, 2017: businesses. Improvisation Camp, Immaculata Unversity, Frazer, PA Please consider giving a July 16-21, 2017: donation to Music for People MLP Switzerland Program Kientalerhof, Kiental, Switzerland and help support our musical mission!!! July 30 - August 4, 2017: Art of Improvisation, SUNY, Fredonia, NY Donations can be made through

Oct. 6-8, 2017: our website using PayPal or Adventures in Improvisation Stony Point Center, Stony mailed by check Point, NY (MLP Training Program)

We Want Your Input! We want to hear from you! Submit news, poems, articles, pictures, suggestions and advertisements to MfP: [email protected] About Connections... Music for People’s newsletter, is published two times a year. We welcome articles, interviews, quotes, poems, vi- gnettes and other tidbits of wisdom relevant to music, creativity and improvisation. An average feature article in Connections is approximately 1,200-1,500 words. Please include a 2-3 sentence author biography. A photo or drawing of the author or the work-in-action is great. Please include credits for photographers and artists. If you are sending someone else’s material, please secure written reprint permission from the publisher, author or artist and send it to us with the manuscript. Ad Rates and Sizes... Rate Size Please submit ads for Connections $150 Full Page W: 6.75” x H: 9.5” electronically as a black & white graphic file $100 Half Page with a minimum 300 dpi setting OR as camera W: 3.25” x H: 9.5” OR ready art. Ad payments are made to Music W: 6.75” x H: 4.75” for People. $70 Quarter Page 10% Discount MfP Members W: 3.25” x H: 4.75” 20% Discount MLP Grads OR W: 6.75” x H: 2.35” $35 Eighth Page : W: 3.25” x H: 2.5” Music for People, P.O. Box 397, Goshen, CT 06756 USA (860) 491-3763 [email protected] Page 23