On Friday October 23, 2015, Berklee College of Music hosted a remarkable symposium that featured musical performances and discussion by faculty and music therapists about the use of music therapy and music education with the visually impaired student, as well as new technologies available to visually impaired musicians for composition and performance. The symposium was well attended, with over 100 people in attendance for all or part of the day. The inspiration for this symposium was the visit to Boston by pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Although blind from birth, he achieved what few sighted pianists have: at the age of 19, he won the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Now 26, he has a very busy and successful concert career around the world and in his home country of Japan. Longwood Symphony was fortunate to be able to host Nobu Tsujii between a West Coast and European tour. Rather than simply performing a concert with him, we designed a residency that demonstrated the balance that makes LSO unique, between music, healing and service, as well as education - including a conference, performance, and site visit to a school for children with autism. The Sound Vision symposium that started the weekend was a collaboration between Berklee College of Music and Longwood Symphony. Here a few insights, observations that I gleaned from the day: Music is connective tissue - Lisa Martino
Teaching All Learners - Panel discussion by faculty discussing education of the blind or visually impaired college student at Berklee, moderated by Anita Walker
Perhaps the day was best summarized by Barbara Lafitte a woodwind teacher at Berklee that in the end: "Passion overrides our hurdles." Here's the full program of the remarkable day, after welcomes by Darla Hanley, Dean Professional Education, Suzanne Hanser, Chair of Music Therapy, and me: Musical Performance: Perkins School Chamber Singers Music Therapy at Perkins School for the Blind Lisa Martino, MT-BC Panel Discussion: Teaching All Learners Moderated by Anita Walker, Executive Director, Massachusetts Cultural Council Berklee College of Music Faculty Speakers Peggy Codding, Music Therapy Arnold Friedman, Composition Rick Kress, Harmony Barbara Lafitte, Woodwind Musical Performance by Takeru Saito and Shun Kumagai, student musicians from Fukushima Musical Welcome back Suzanne Hanser Assistive Music Technology Chi Ki, Asst Prof. Music Therapy Musical Performance Wayne Pearcy and Rocco Fiorentino Film viewing: Excerpts from Touching the Sound: The Improbable Journey of Nobuyuki Tsujii Musical Performance Nobuyuki Tsujii
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Dr. Lisa M. Wong
I'm a musician and pediatrician, passionate about arts in education and about bringing the community together through music Archives
October 2015
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