Project Music Heals Us hosts workshop at CCWF
What can touch the soul of almost anyone in the world? Is there a song right now that really evokes feelings in you? Music is often called a “universal language” for good reason.
The week of Jan. 6 brought a magical healing moment to the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), as Project Music Heals Us (PMHU) filled our Visiting spaces with musical strains beyond beautiful. Teaching Artist Ben Grow (a.k.a. Music Boss) guided residents through enough music theory and composition to write their own short pieces and then hear them performed by The Dolphins Quartet from New York’s elite music school, Juilliard.
The Dolphins are not only world-class musicians, but accomplished composers. These talented young men worked individually with residents to help bring their pieces to life. The Dolphins are: Luke Henderson (violin), Isaac Park (violin), James Prencil (viola), and Ian Maloney (cello).
Program Manager Dana Martin started PMHU to bring interactive, musical healing to healthcare set-tings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and refugee centers. Martin emphasizes bringing dignity and compassion to all humans.
“I believe that the arts can heal and transform,” says Martin. I love music and art passionately and I want to bring it to those that need it: for comfort, healing, transformation.” Martin herself is a musician, actor, director, theater critic, and teacher.
The CCWF original compositions performed by The Dolphins illustrated how powerfully music can pull out our deepest internal workings, and catalyze dramatic, positive change. Participant Nicole Gulley was in awe of the Juilliard musicians. “They started with feelings – fear, shame, anger…and translated them to notes and music.”
Each morning of the five-day workshop, Martin opened with stretching and breathwork which relaxed participants, heightened sensory awareness, and prepared them to imagine and create music. Martin emphasized the importance of mind-body connection in creative endeavors and emotional processing.
Teaching Artist Ben Grow’s teaching style was as clear and poetic as the sound produced by The Dolphins. He made the writing of music accessible and flexible, and encouraged composers to use their own language to indicate how their pieces should be interpreted. For example, residents marked their works as “lively and upbeat,” or “with swag.” Grow said he feels “duty-bound to share the creative force that goes into composition.”
Participant Carol Coronado enthused, “My childhood dream came true…When (our pieces) were performed I felt alive; I was able to express myself and emotionally regulate myself.”
Warden Anissa De La Cruz, Community Resource Manager Gabriella Armendariz, AAPIO Monique Williams and Ombudsman Tami Falconer, along with facility administrators and community leaders, joined the group for the final performance. After each resident introduced their piece, The Dolphins played the collaborative work.
De La Cruz related personally to the musical-emotional experience, as a classically-trained pianist herself. “When I hear a song,” she commented, “it really touches me. When someone wrote the song, they were probably feeling the same thing that I’m feeling.”
The residents requested a special piece for the grand finale: viola player James Prencil’s original composition, “Just Around the Bend.” His intention with this song was to express what we feel when we’re about to see someone we’ve been missing.
With a unique fusion of classical and contemporary pop and country influences, the music captured the room. By the second instance of the melodic motif, I felt my heartstrings pulled straight from inside as my eyes blurred with tears, and emotion projected toward the loved one I miss the most. Mine were not the only tears in the room.
Participants Jessalynn Graham shared, “This has been instrumental in orchestrating a new life song for me. I lost part of my soul, and here I found it again.”
Not only did PMHU facilitate an amazing initial performance, but they stayed for a nine-week session to delve further into music theory and composition with the residents. This incredible workshop embodied music’s raw emotional power as described by great composer Ludwig Van Beethoven: “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”
