Events

David at the Lake Superior wedding of cousin
Erich Wolff and Yunny Kim
September 10, 2005

Here are some recent (and not so recent) highlights I'd like to share:

I was delighted to present with my dear friend and respected colleague Carolyn Koebel at The Great Lakes Region (GLR) of The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) conference last spring. Our concurrent session was entitled In the Garden Alone? Skills, Suggestions and Support for Hospice Music Therapists. We were grateful for the positive responses we received.

I have also spoken in recent years on my work with a number of former hospice patients from quite diverse backgrounds, a presentation entitled Everything Relates to Everything: Multicultural Experiences in Hospice Music Therapy. You may view a PDF version of the Power Point slides here.

You may also visit Minnesota Network of Hospice and Palliative Care (formerly Hospice Minnesota) for information on "Living With Hospice", a touching documentary DVD that features stories of patients and families as well as interviews with caregivers. My music therapy work with a patient is included and I provided the instrumental guitar soundtrack for the film.

And continued thanks to my friend, Michele Areyzaga, renowned Chicago-area soprano, for singing my arrangement of Malotte's The Lord's Prayer for high voice and guitar accompaniment as an encore at her recent recitals. Keep your eyes and ears peeled - her star continues to rise!

Another wonderful musician (who emailed me out of the blue last year and said he had written a song about my grandfather – really?! Whoa!) is Jonathan Rundman. Visit his blog, listen to the song with the reference to Gerhard, “Robert Traver Blues” and support his great music. Thank you Jonathan!

If you have visited this page in recent years, you may recall having read that on November 16, 2007, my wife Marybeth and I are lost our home and possessions to a fire. While sifting through the rubble about a week later, I found, to my amazement, some badly charred but still legible fragments of my grandfather's hand-written music. All the rest however was destroyed. This web site will continue to digitally preserve at least some memories.

We are humbled by and grateful for all kindness we have been shown since this event.

All the best!

David