Musicians "Dance the Neural Tango" in concert series
Music Therapy Gateway In Communications, Inc. has received a grant from ArtsBuild and the Tennessee Arts Commission. The 2015-16 “Arts Build Communities” grant will support the continuation of a concert series designed to highlight the value of music in therapy.
This year’s grant project, “Dance of the Neural Tango,” will also offer additional information on this topic to the Chattanooga community in the form of lecture and workshop sessions designed to be educational and informative.
The first event will take place on Oct. 9 at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the UTC Fine Arts Center. Martha Summa-Chadwick, pianist and MTGIC executive director, will collaborate with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera String Quartet, Huntsville Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Mark Reneau, and UTC Department of Music voice professor Rebecca St. Goar for a concert at 7:30 p.m. The pre-concert lecture will begin at 7 p.m.
The concert, “Chamber Music for Body and Soul III,” will include works of Johannes Brahms, a close friend of Robert Schumann (speculated to have had bi-polar disorder), and vocal and violin arrangements of the music of George Gershwin, which are full of rhythmic drive to encourage movement to the music. The presentation will both enlighten the audience to the benefits of music for the central nervous system, and provide them with a delightful aesthetic experience, said officials.
A second concert/workshop will be scheduled for later in October and will feature Chattanooga musician Dan Landrum performing on his hammered dulcimer. Ms. Summa-Chadwick will introduce the program with a brief overview of how the benefits of music can be intentionally directed to assist in therapeutic rehabilitation of persons with motor, speech, or cognitiom disorders as well as how the actual playing of a musical instrument changes the very physiology of the musician’s brain structure, and then Mr. Landrum will take then over the stage with a musical presentation. Included in the performance will be new material that Mr. Landrum
has recently composed.
All events will be free of charge and open to the public. A listing of all concerts, informational sessions, lectures, and workshops will be posted on the MTGIC website (www.mtgic.org) and Ms. Summ-Chadwick’s personal website (www.marthasumma.com) as the schedule becomes available. As an ongoing part of this grant effort, MTGIC is available for presentations, lectures, and workshops for organizations wishing to learn more about the benefits of music in a therapeutic environment. Interested organizations or groups who would like more information regarding the use of music in therapy can contact Ms. Summa-Chadwick at either website to request presentations for such groups as therapists, educators, musicians, parents, or caregivers of persons with special needs.