Taught by Dorian Wallace
“Community music therapy encourages musical participation and social inclusion, equitable access to resources, and collaborative efforts for health and wellbeing in contemporary societies.”
—Brynjulf Stige and Leif Edvard Aarø, Invitation to community music therapy
Music therapy is an evidence-based clinical use of musical interventions to improve an individual’s quality of life. Music therapy is built on the foundation that music has the ability to promote, stimulate, and empower the mind, body and spirit. It can enhance our quality of life and promote healing. Community music-making is a foundational way to connect with others. Music transcends time and is present in all communities throughout the world. Given this universal nature of music, music therapy is uniquely able to reach individuals across all backgrounds and ages. No previous musical knowledge is required in order for an individual or group to be able to participate. Through creative experiences with music, one can connect with what cannot easily be expressed verbally and strengthen a sense of self.
Built on a foundation of humanistic principles, this course will examine music therapy as a science-based method. Over four group sessions, participants will develop practical applications in building deeper empathy and compassion for our fellow humans through community music-making.
Course Details
- 4 group sessions
- November 2, 9, 16 and 23, 2020
- Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern Time
- Cost: $100 per person
Instructor
Dorian Wallace is a composer, pianist, podcaster, teacher, music therapist, and activist whose work explores the unconscious experience, and is an outspoken critic of authoritarian systems, dogmatism, censorship, and oppression. Together with violinist Hajnal Pivnick, Wallace co-founded Tenth Intervention, a progressive new music collective and concert series based in New York City. He is artistic director of improvisational septendectet The Free Sound Ahn-somble. Dorian is a founding member of Social Ecology Project, a politically driven new music trio. Alongside composer David Kulma, he co-hosts Trysteropod, a podcast about music and politics.
As a composer and performer, he has collaborated with artists such as Nicholas Finch, NouLou Chamber Players, Paul Pinto, Charlotte Mundy, Pamela Z, Frank London, Experiments In Opera, Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana – EIH, Composers Concordance, Periapsis Music and Dance, Robert Ashley, Seneca Black, Matt Marks, RIOULT Dance, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Kensaku Shinohara, and John Sanborn.
His work has been presented at National Sawdust, NPR’s Science Friday, Rubin Museum of Art, The Greene Space at WNYC & WQXR, Pompidou Centre, Palais Jacques Coeur, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Casa de las Américas La Habana, Cuba, Americas Society, New Music USA, Lower Manhattan Community Council, the Earle Brown Music Foundation, the Johnstone Fund for New Music, the Puffin Foundation, Caveat, New Music Gathering, Universidad de Costa Rica, Interlochen Public Radio, New York University’s Precarious Sounds // Sounding Sanctuary conference, and the 2018-19 Composer-in-residence with Exploring the Metropolis.
Dorian works extensively as a dance accompanist at Martha Graham Dance Company, Barnard College of Columbia University, Juilliard, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is a teaching artist with The Mark Morris Dance Accompaniment Training Program. Having completed his coursework in music therapy at Montclair State University, Wallace is currently interning at Mount Sinai Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine.
He currently resides in Harlem, New York City.