A student once walked into my studio with such stress and tension not only emanating from her body, but from her spirit….I could tell that even though no words were spoken about this yet considering it was our first meeting, that her soul was just begging to be released through sound/music, so I had her close her eyes and conductorsize her way through “Va Pensiero” or the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco.   She was timid about it at first-full of trepidation, slowly moving her arms and the rest of her body in angular movements, but little by little the sounds and beauty of the chorus overtook her and she was moving her body rhythmically and effortlessly…not caring about what she looked like…not caring about where she was or what I was thinking about any longer. She was becoming the music and letting herself go.

Another student who has had to overcome some real hardships and was robbed of her childhood in many ways wrote through the subtext in one of her songs that “her soul was dead.” Bothered and saddened by her having written that I began working through a vocalization/visualization with her where she closed her eyes and extended her arms out towards her soul. I had her feel it’s weight, to sing to her soul so to speak….a very powerful exercise with many beautiful outcomes…..my student ended up singing with such feeling when she was holding her soul out in front of her……I mentioned afterwards, “how can your soul be dead if through the music you just brought in so much life and passion…perhaps it’s not dead at all, but it has just been sleeping?”…..I think it gave her a new understanding and realization about her earlier statement. It is a wonderful and awesome thing to be able to help people in this way and I feel very honored that students trust me with their deepest wishes, thoughts, fears, and joys.