https://amtapro.musictherapy.org Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:45:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 2008-2010 elkins@musictherapy.org (AMTA.Pro) elkins@musictherapy.org (AMTA.Pro) 1440 AMTA.Pro AMTA.Pro elkins@musictherapy.org yes no https://amtapro.musictherapy.org/?p=2967 Mon, 07 Mar 2022 01:57:20 +0000 https://amtapro.musictherapy.org/?p=2967 0:11:51 Our music therapy colleague Dr. Alan Solomon tells his AMTA-Pro podcast listeners his musical journey started as a result of his living in the same town as the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, events which inspired him to take guitar lessons. This o[...] Our music therapy colleague Dr. Alan Solomon tells his AMTA-Pro podcast listeners his musical journey started as a result of his living in the same town as the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, events which inspired him to take guitar lessons. This opened the door to music experiences as a youngster, teen, and college student which eventually led to his becoming a music therapist. Alan has many stories to tell about his career as a musician, a clinician, and an educator as well as his active life as a retiree teaching online, spending time with families of their three sons, and teaching, composing, and playing acoustic fingerstyle guitar and traditional acoustic blues. The text accompanying this AMTA-Pro podcast includes some interesting photographs as well as a written informal biography in which Alan shares some more delightful stories about his adventures in music and music therapy over the years. Alan Solomon: Jazzy Music Therapist AMTA-Pro Podcast ~~ February 2022     Dr. Alan Solomon started his musical journey with guitar lessons as a youngster after hanging around the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals in his home town. He joined a band in high school, a band that was eventually booked for a regular weekend gig at a club in Newport. The musicians in the Breakaway band were too young to enter the club as patrons, but they played on stage for three years. Over the years, Alan had an opportunity to play in some distinguished ensembles and to meet some extraordinary musicians. Pictures above are Alan with his band, with Renee Fleming, and with Pinchas Zukerman. In this AMTA-Pro podcast, our music therapy colleague tells of  music experiences as a youngster, teen, and college student which eventually led to his becoming a music therapist. Alan was involved in this professional field as a clinician and as an educator, and he was quite active over the with regional and national music therapy associations. Alan writes, “My greatest professional honors, both very humbling, were (1) to receive an AMTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and (2) to be invited, along with Ken Medema, to speak at the opening night presentation of AMTA’s 60th anniversary conference in 2010. This address was the first in the Carol Hampton Bitcon Speaker series and was titled Pioneers, Generations, and Memories: AMTA’s Diamond Anniversary.” These three snapshots provide a brief glimpse into many years with NAMT and AMTA.        In his “Informal Biography” below, Alan shares more delightful stories about his adventures in music and music therapy over the years as well as his active retiree life with family and music: I am – not in any special order – a guitarist, guitar teacher, music therapist, music therapy educator, college music administrator, husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and cousin to 31,240 people (according to the most recent count at Family Tree DNA). My professional titles include professor, doctor, dean, and Colonel (in Kentucky only!). My wife Barbara and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in June 2023. We have been blessed with three incredible sons, three beautiful daughters-in-law, and four wonderful grands. I was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1951 where my parents lived after my father returned from Asia where he served during WW II. Our family later moved to Newport, RI when my father took a new job, and it was during these years that I started taking private guitar lessons. I attended Middletown (RI) High School and then went to the University of Rhode Island where I earned a Bachelor of Music degree with a flute major. I studied flute with Gregory Zeitlin (principal flute in the Rhode Island Philharmonic and former scholarship student of the renown Georges Barrère at the Julliard School of Music). Barbara and I were married upon graduation from URI, and we left Rhode Island shortly thereafter to start our music therapy journey. Fortunately for me, Barbara w[...] elkins@musictherapy.org no yes