BRATTLEBORO — A music-therapy workshop and concert will be presented on Saturday, July 21, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., at the Brattleboro Music Center.
According to a news release, this workshop explores the relationship of sound, music, and vibration to the body, mind, and spirit. The approach centers on the belief that the connection between music, art, and healing creates positive change in the individual and in the broader community.
Music therapist Ayla Varol Clark, Ph.D., and her colleagues will use the creative process of musical interventions to improve and enhance the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being, as well as the quality of life, for individuals of all ages.
Clark is a music therapist, educator, consultant, musician, and composer. She is also founder and president of Southern Vermont Music Therapy organization.
The concert, which follows the workshop, features the music of Turkey. Together, Clark says the workshop and concert will benefit everyone from experienced musicians to those interested in expanding their healing creativity in everyday life.
Presenters at the workshop, scheduled for 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., include:
• Ellen Jean E. Cooley, M.A., who will present a music-therapy activity for early intervention for those who have developmental delays.
• Clark, who will present musical function training for organizing, problem solving, decision making, reasoning, and comprehension.
• Mitchell Kossak, Ph.D., LMHC, REAT, an associate professor and former director in the expressive therapies program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.
Clark will also be part of the ensemble playing in concert after the workshop at 3:30 p.m.
She will be joined by Ron Smith, a jazz musician and educator at Northfield Mount Hermon; Volkan Efe, who has performed with various Turkish music ensembles in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, before moving to Boston; and percussionist Tom Robertson, who has played and sung with Mary Cay Brass's River Singers.