Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020
FEATURED: Music & Health writer Vivien Fellegi explores music, blindness & the plasticity of perception; David Jaeger digs into Gustavo Gimeno's plans for new music in his upcoming first season as music director at TSO; pianist James Rhodes, here for an early March recital, speaks his mind in a Q&A with Paul Ennis; and Lydia Perovic talks music and more with rising Turkish-Canadian mezzo Beste Kalender. Also, among our columns, Peggy Baker Dance Projects headlines Wende Bartley's In with the New; Steve Wallace's Jazz Notes rushes in definitionally where many fear to tread; ... and more.
FEATURED: Music & Health writer Vivien Fellegi explores music, blindness & the plasticity of perception; David Jaeger digs into Gustavo Gimeno's plans for new music in his upcoming first season as music director at TSO; pianist James Rhodes, here for an early March recital, speaks his mind in a Q&A with Paul Ennis; and Lydia Perovic talks music and more with rising Turkish-Canadian mezzo Beste Kalender. Also, among our columns, Peggy Baker Dance Projects headlines Wende Bartley's In with the New; Steve Wallace's Jazz Notes rushes in definitionally where many fear to tread; ... and more.
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“(Music) is a peaceful escape from the world<br />
and the frustrations…the blindness creates”<br />
process – it can take an hour to go through just seven bars. As well,<br />
the loss of his once dazzling sight-reading skills precludes him from<br />
jamming with others unless he’s already memorized the music. “I<br />
can’t just get together with an oboist and play for fun,” says Arnowitt.<br />
Losing vision later in life is more challenging than being born blind,<br />
says Di Nino. As your sight gradually diminishes, you realize how<br />
much you rely on that faculty just to get around, and, in its absence,<br />
you might be limited in what you used to be able to accomplish. “You<br />
can have the feeling…(that the) world is literally closing in,” she says.<br />
Loss of sight can impact your social life as well. People usually gravitate<br />
to communities of friends who share similar capacities, so the shift<br />
into blindness can make the person feel out of place amongst their old<br />
networks. It can also shake up romantic relationships, says Di Nino.<br />
Music therapy can be healing in these situations. As a nonverbal<br />
medium, it helps clients process their grief before they’re able to<br />
attach words to their feelings. Later, when their mobility has been<br />
restored, clients can turn to songs to help them forge connections and<br />
keep loneliness at bay. “Music is a social act to be shared,” she says.<br />
Music therapy can also help newly blind clients augment their<br />
remaining sensory capacities and regain their functional independence.<br />
Neurologic music therapist John Hartman, from the Milwaukee<br />
Center for Independence in Wisconsin, uses musical techniques to<br />
boost auditory discrimination. In one exercise, clients try to emulate<br />
the pace and volume of the therapist’s playing, reproducing these on<br />
their own instruments. In another lesson, they concentrate on the<br />
location of sounds, turning their heads towards notes issuing from<br />
instruments spread out in the room.<br />
Hartman also uses music to activate newly blind clients fearful of<br />
flailing around in the dark. Rhythm engages the brain’s motor area,<br />
rousing people into motion. Hartman plays clients well-known action<br />
songs like Row, row, row your boat, which stimulate movements in<br />
response to the musical cues. As clients begin to explore their surroundings<br />
in the safety of familiar pieces, their ability to navigate improves.<br />
Arnowitt hasn’t needed formal music therapy to compensate for<br />
his perceptual loss, since he’s accomplished this naturally. Though the<br />
pianist’s hearing hasn’t changed since he lost his vision, (he already<br />
had a highly trained ear by that time), he’s become better at orienting<br />
himself in the environment. Arnowitt maintains the same organization<br />
of objects in every room, so when he looks for something, his<br />
hand always moves to the same spot. He believes this emphasis on<br />
spatial memory has impacted his piano playing. “The blindness might<br />
have caused me to be more aware of the distances between things, …so<br />
maybe I’m able to play greater jumps…on the piano,” he says.<br />
Arnowitt’s tactile ability has also grown since he lost his vision.<br />
He attributes this development to his increased reliance on the sense<br />
to identify commonly used items like toothpaste, scissors, or a hairbrush.<br />
This experience has, in turn, refined this dimension of perception.<br />
(That)…sensitivity in the fingertips…would make (your) piano<br />
touch a little bit better,” says Arnowitt.<br />
Music has also helped Arnowitt come to terms with the difficulties<br />
issuing from his disability. “(Music) is a peaceful escape from the<br />
world and the frustrations…the blindness creates,” he says. His years of<br />
solo practice have also made him comfortable spending long hours by<br />
himself. He rarely feels alone when he’s at the piano, since the instrument<br />
itself is a companion. So are the composers. “You have a connection<br />
to them even though you didn’t live (during) their time,” he says.<br />
Back at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, “Evening in the<br />
Key of B” is ending. Arnowitt stands and bows. The theatre explodes<br />
with applause and cries of “Whoo, whoo.”<br />
McCleary is relaxed after the show, her seriousness giving way to<br />
a smile as she talks to her parents. “It was a fantastic evening,” says<br />
her father. De Val agrees. “Working with Susanna is a real trip for me…<br />
she’s so professional, so musical,” she says. “It’s a bit of a high.”<br />
Arnowitt too is surrounded by fans. These moments of communion<br />
insulate him from the loneliness that can trouble others with visual<br />
impairment. “I lead an unusual life compared to typical blind people…<br />
every time I perform, I’m surrounded by people afterwards who want<br />
to talk to me and shower me with compliments,” he says.<br />
Every once in a while, spectators go deeper. One time a woman credited<br />
his concert with helping her mourn a death. Times like these<br />
confirm Arnowitt’s own conviction of music’s transformative potential.<br />
“You like to think that making music is more than entertainment,”<br />
says Arnowitt. “When you know someone in the audience had a deeper<br />
experience, it gives myself, as a performer, a special satisfaction.”<br />
Vivien Fellegi is a former family physician now working as a<br />
freelance medical journalist.<br />
SUPPORTING LIVE MUSIC IN ONTARIO & BEYOND – SINCE 1995.<br />
<strong>25</strong>th SEASON!<br />
Vol <strong>25</strong> No 5<br />
<strong>25</strong>th SEASON!<br />
Vol <strong>25</strong> No 4<br />
<strong>25</strong>th SEASON!<br />
Vol <strong>25</strong> No 3<br />
<strong>25</strong>th SEASON!<br />
Vol <strong>25</strong> No 2<br />
FEBRUARY <strong>2020</strong><br />
CONCERT LISTINGS<br />
FEATURES | REVIEWS<br />
MUSIC THEATRE<br />
Changed by Caroline<br />
R & B’s Jully Black<br />
CONVERSATIONS<br />
On the Early Trail of Indigo<br />
Suba Sankaran & Alison Mackay<br />
OPERA SPOTLIGHT<br />
Speranza Scappucci<br />
Lightning Conductor<br />
JAZZ NOTES<br />
My Funny Valentine<br />
A Brief History<br />
REAR VIEW MIRROR<br />
Beethoven @<strong>25</strong>0<br />
Jully Black<br />
DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY <strong>2020</strong><br />
CONCERT LISTINGS<br />
FEATURES | REVIEWS<br />
DEC/JAN<br />
COMBINED ISSUE!<br />
BEHIND THE SCENES<br />
And the trombone shall sound?<br />
The orchestra librarian’s nightmare<br />
NEW MUSIC<br />
The art of falling<br />
Laurie Anderson at 21C<br />
IN CONVERSATION<br />
Scarlatti and beyond<br />
Pianist Lucas Debargue<br />
REARVIEW MIRROR<br />
Merry, um, holidays!<br />
Toronto Symphony Orchestra<br />
NOVEMBER 2019<br />
CONCERT LISTINGS<br />
FEATURES | REVIEWS<br />
CONFLUENCES<br />
Collaboration vs.<br />
appropriation<br />
An exploratory evening with<br />
mezzo Marion Newman<br />
LEGACIES<br />
Grounded in displacement<br />
Composer Udo Kasemets<br />
A centenary celebration<br />
REAR VIEW MIRROR<br />
Controversially<br />
uncontroversial<br />
The Met’s Porgy and Bess<br />
Marion Newman in<br />
Tapestry Opera’s Shanawdithit<br />
20th Annual<br />
PRESENTER<br />
BLUE PROFILES<br />
2019/20<br />
PAGES<br />
SPOTLIGHT<br />
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir<br />
celebrates 1<strong>25</strong><br />
SUCCESSION PLANNING<br />
Change is coming<br />
at the Music Gallery<br />
MUSIC AND HEALTH<br />
Relaxed performances<br />
bring barriers down<br />
OCTOBER 2019<br />
CONCERT LISTINGS<br />
FEATURES | REVIEWS<br />
SoundCrowd<br />
ALL ONLINE AT<br />
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