Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend - Response

My previous post describes a wonderful event this past weekend (June 3-5) at Loyola University New Orleans--Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend--held to honor Phil and Ellen Frohnmayer, beloved voice professors in Loyola's College of Music & Fine Arts. This post will discuss how I responded to this inspiring weekend and what I learned from it.

My main response to this weekend is JOY! I found myself filled with joy in honoring Phil and Ellen for their nearly thirty-year career of teaching and singing--a career which is ongoing. It was a joy to celebrate with music, food, friends, prayer, and gratitude. It was a joy to see so many lives that have blossomed because of excellent teaching and excellent mentorship. It was a joy to contribute with my presence and with a small contribution to the Frohnmayer Legacy Fund.

Below are some of the thoughts I am left with as a result of Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend.

MUSIC AND ART IN LIFE. How poor is a life without music and art. How rich is a life surrounded by music and art. Music and art raise the vibrations of joy in our lives.

MUSIC AND ART IN EDUCATION. How stupid, or should I say cruel, to remove music and art from our children's education. Music and art make life worth living. What good is it to make an excellent living if one cannot make an excellent life? What good is to increase one's financial profits if one cannot deepen one's joy? Every child should graduate from high school knowing how to read music, to sing a melody on pitch, to harmonize, and to play at least one instrument both in solo and ensemble performance. Every child should graduate from high school knowing how to draw. These things should be part of a basic education for every student in elementary and high school.

LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION IN MUSIC AND ART. Anne Marie Frohnmayer commented, during a conversation this weekend, that we can participate in music at all sorts of levels. She herself was enjoying seeing how her parents' former students were using their music now in their lives. They are doing so in all sorts of ways and at many levels. As Anne Marie said, "You don't have to be Pavarotti!"

What can one do with one's singing? Well, one can take major, minor, or chorus roles in opera performances; one can take major, minor, or chorus roles in musicals; one can be a soloist or chorus/choir member in a community chorus or church choir; one can perform at one's local nightclub; one can perform at one's local coffeehouse; one can be a street musician; one can have evenings of song for friends in one's home; one can sing lullabies to one's children; one can sing for people in hospitals or nursing homes.

These levels are also true for instrumentalists and for music teachers. Instrumentalists, especially pianists, also have the option of accompanying. Music teachers are so important, opening the world of music, not only for the gifted, but also for the average, for example, the piano student of average ability who wants to play for the sheer joy of it. And we shouldn't forget the level of audience--the audience is an essential part of a musical performance.

Everyone can participate in music, art, poetry.

WHOLE-PERSON TEACHING. It is clear that the Frohnmayers teach the whole student and teach from their whole selves. Learning is not simply concerned with the subject matter, particularly when learning involves a skill such as singing or playing an instrument, drawing or painting or sculpting, writing, learning a language. Learning involves a student's body, mind, soul, and spirit. Learning is affected by joy, sorrow, success, failure, gain, loss, health, illness, encouragement, criticism, liking the teacher, not liking the teacher. The Frohnmayers are concerned about all aspects of a student's life, always in an appropriate, not a nosy, way.

Also, it is well to teach as a whole person. Some teachers bring only their teacher selves into the classroom. Other teachers bring their whole selves and draw upon the various aspects of themselves as appropriate in their teaching. The Frohnmayers teach from their whole selves.

APPRECIATION. It is joyful to show appreciation! This is a great benefit of writing! When one writes, one falls in love with the subject of one's writing. It is not possible to write well without closely studying the subject that one is writing about. This close study leads to appreciation and love. I may have appreciated what I am writing about before starting to write, but writing allows me to appreciate and love my subject so much more specifically and fully and deeply.

Well, that was a digression on writing. Just simply expressing gratitude, I find, raises the vibrations of joy.

CELEBRATION. It is joyful to celebrate! We should celebrate as much as possible! It is joyful to celebrate accomplishments--even "small" ones! Celebrating and honoring were such a joy this weekend.

GIVING. It was such a joy to contribute to the Frohnmayer Legacy Fund. It is joyful to give in ways that make a difference in areas that one believes in. I believe in the arts for all, and that is where I want to give.

Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend - Description

This past weekend (June 3-5) was Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend at Loyola University New Orleans. It was a glorious time!

Phil and Ellen Frohnmayer have taught voice in the College of Music & Fine Arts at Loyola University New Orleans since 1982. They came to Loyola after a seven- or eight-year career of singing opera in Germany. They are wonderful teachers and wonderful singers, and they have kept a full schedule doing both--teaching and performing--for nearly thirty years. In the last several years, Phil has had two bouts with cancer, requiring surgery and chemotherapy each time. He is clear of cancer at present and continues his teaching, as does Ellen. Phil and Ellen have a daughter, Anne Marie, who is also a singer and lives in Pennsylvania.

Several of the Frohnmayers' former students decided to have a reunion and appreciation weekend for the Frohnmayers, who truly are beloved voice professors. The Frohnmayers are very involved with their students, helping them not only with their singing but also with life issues and with launching their careers. So--a committee of former students arranged for a truly magnificent weekend of appreciation, music, and legacy building. This last means that a Frohnmayer Legacy Fund has been established to support the teaching and performing of opera at Loyola University New Orleans. I am proud to say that I have made a contribution to this fund.

I have to say that I have NEVER seen anything like this done for any professor at Loyola (or anywhere)! Well, I would like to give a description of the weekend.

GALA RECEPTION & MUSIC EVENING--NEW ORLEANS OPERA GUILD HOME--FRIDAY EVENING. This was an evening of visiting with friends, old and new, all connected with the Frohnmayers. It was an evening of delicious food served buffet style. It was an evening of appreciation, as letters were read by former students who could not be present. It was also an evening of music, performed in an intimate, living-room setting. Here are some of the pieces that were performed:

• "Papageno-Papagena" from The Magic Flute by Mozart--Anne Marie Frohnmayer sang the role of Papagena in a very animated way!
• "Mi Chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme by Puccini
• "La Ci Darem La Mano" from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
• "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan

PRAYER SERVICE--IGNATIUS CHAPEL AT LOYOLA--SATURDAY MORNING. This included prayers, readings, and music. Each person lit two candles, representing something to be healed and something to be thankful for.

MASTER CHAT WITH PHIL--NUNEMAKER AUDITORIUM AT LOYOLA--SATURDAY MORNING. This was a master class in which several of Phil's current and former students each sang a piece and Phil provided a critique and worked with the student on breathing, posture, vowel quality, dynamics, and many other aspects in order to achieve an effective musical and emotional production. I was sitting with people who had never before seen a master class and who were absolutely fascinated at all that goes into perfecting a piece of music. We really were watching a true master at work with his students. Among the pieces performed were an aria from Billy Budd by Benjamin Britten and "Un Bel Di" from Madame Butterfly by Puccini.

GALA PERFORMANCE & CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION--ROUSSEL AUDITIORIUM AT LOYOLA--SATURDAY EVENING. This was a wonderful musical evening. These are some of the musical highlights:

• "Walking" by William Horne (a Loyola music professor), sung by Patrick Jocobs and accompanied on piano by Logan Skelton. This piece consists of an email by Phil Frohnmayer set to music by William Horne! Phil had written about the walks he took through New Orleans neighborhoods while being treated for cancer.
• Two poems by Emily Dickenson ("The Moon Is Distant from the Sea" and "'Hope' Is the Thing with Feathers") set to music by Logan Skelton, sung by Suzanne DuPlantis and accompanied on piano by Logan Skelton. Logan told us that "The Moon Is Distant from the Sea" suggested to him the relationship between Ellen and Phil as Phil was being treated for cancer--Ellen reaching out to Phil and influencing him with her love and care and Phil responding.
• "Gluck Dass Mir Verblieb" from Die Tote Stadt by Erich Korngold, sung by Tyler Smith and Betsy Uschkrat and accompanied on piano by Carol Rausch. This was special because I often sit at the same lunch table with Tyler and Betsy (who are married and who both teach voice at Loyola) in the faculty dining room. This weekend was my first time to hear them sing--and they are wonderful, alone and together! I also learned that Tyler and Betsy will be giving a full recital on Saturday evening, September 17! I absolutely plan to attend this concert!
• "Sola, Perduta, Abbandonata" from Manon Lascaut by Puccini, sung by Melody Moore and accompanied on piano by Carol Rausch
• "Madamina, Il Catalogo E Questo" from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, sung by Kenneth Weber and accompanied on piano by Carol Rausch
• 'E Strano . . . Ah, Fors'e Lui . . . Sempre Libera" from La Traviata by Verdi, sung by Rachel Elizabeth De Trejo and accompanied on piano by Carol Rausch. Gorgeous!
• "Aprite Un Po' Quegli Occhi" from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, sung by Alfred Walker and accompanied on piano by Carol Rausch
• "The Promise of Living" from The Tender Land by Aaron Copeland, sung by everyone who had performed and accompanied on piano by Carmen Leerstang

Also, Donald Boomgaarden, Dean of the College of Music & Fine Arts, gave a beautiful explanation of the Frohnmayer Legacy Fund, and Tony Decuir, Associate Dean of the College of Music & Fine Arts, read several letters from former students who could not be present and gave his own reminiscences of the Frohnmayers' arrival at Loyola in 1982.

It was an inspiring and gorgeous evening!

This post has described Frohnmayer Appreciation Weekend. My next post will describe what the event meant to me.

Harry Potter: The Phoenix's Song of Lament

When the beloved Professor Albus Dumbledore dies toward the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore's phoenix, named Fawkes, sings a beautiful lament, described on pages 614-615:

Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing in a way Harry had never heard before: a stricken lament of terrible beauty. And Harry felt, as he had felt about phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song that echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows.

How long they all stood there, listening, he did not know, nor why it seemed to ease their pain a little to listen to the sound of their mourning, but it felt like a long time later that the hospital door opened again and Professor McGonagall entered the ward.

This is the power of beautiful music of deep feeling. Such music seems to be not only outside the listener but also within the listener's soul. Such music expresses the listener's feelings in a beautiful way--turns the listener's feelings, even if those feelings are very painful, into something of beauty. And in so doing, such music heals.

If one's soul has been damaged, one way to heal the soul is through music and other types of art. Art heals the soul. Music heals the soul.

I would say that anyone whose soul has been damaged by being abused or traumatized, or by abusing or traumatizing self or others, would do well to make music and other forms of art an important part of his or her healing. Such a person would do well to surround himself or herself with beauty. Prisons and half-way houses would do well to take note of this. So would hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes--any place that focuses on rehabilitation and healing.

Hospital Experience #12: Yvonne - Healing Music Part 2

This is the twelfth in a series of posts on a recent experience at Ochsner Hospital - having a cardiac catheter ablation procedure to correct a heart arrhythmia. These posts describe and reflect on various aspects of the hospital experience. This twelfth post is the second of two posts reflecting on Yvonne's gift of healing music.

For greater understanding of this post, it will help to have read my previous post, "Hospital Experience #11: Yvonne - Healing Music Part 1," which describes healing music as played and sung by Yvonne and reflects on the aspects of comfort, presence, and healing in Yvonne's gift. This post, "Hospital Experience #12: Yvonne - Healing Music Part 2," will reflect on further aspects of this gift.

VIBRATION. Music is a powerful healing medium. I believe that this is because vibration is at the center of the universe. At the core of the universe, there is a pulse. At the core of every human being, there is a pulse - our heartbeat. Our core organ, the heart, embodies a life-giving vibration, pulse, beat, rhythm.

Rhythm is primary in music - enhanced by melody, harmony, timbre, and dynamics. In playing and singing for me, Yvonne was connecting with me at a very deep and primal level. Through music, she was speaking to me at my core. It is also worth noting that my medical issue was a heart arrhythmia, and Yvonne was sending healing music to me, healing rhythm.

BEAUTY. Beauty enhances any healing medium. If a patient needs bed rest, if is well to surround the patient with beautiful sights, sounds, textures, and scents. If a patient needs special baths, it is well to include candles and music. If a patient needs to be kept in traction, it is well to hang colorful mobiles from the bars. If a patient needs a special diet, it is well to add flowers to the meal tray. Beauty will heal because it touches the soul. The healing music played and sung by Yvonne took me into a world of intense beauty. Yvonne was bathing me in beautiful music.

SACREDNESS. Music is Yvonne's soul language. In playing and singing for me, Yvonne was taking me into the depths of her heart and holding me safely there. She was giving to me from her most sacred inner place. She was giving me the gift that is uniquely hers to give, the gift that gives her the most joy to give.

ART. Art heals - and with my previous blog post and this one, I see two art forms combining to effect a healing that my soul needs. These are music and writing. Writing is my art medium. Music is Yvonne's. Yvonne and I also share each other's media in that Yvonne also writes and I have also played, sung, and even composed music. But I would say that writing is more natural to me, as music is more natural to Yvonne. Also, Yvonne has gone far more deeply into her medium than I have into mine. Nonetheless, Yvonne's gift to me of music and my working with this gift through writing has effected and is effecting a profound healing.

INEXHAUSTIBLENESS. I believe that healing music opens channels that continue to effect healing. I can never say that I have received everything there is to be gleaned from this hospital experience and from Yvonne's gift. The healing will continue to unfold.

ENRICHMENT TO THE GIVER. Yvonne's gift included letting me know how giving to me had enriched her. Yvonne does not see herself as solely giving and me as solely receiving. In her view, my willingness to receive her gift was something that I gave to her, and this allowed her to give her gift and to receive what that experience held for her. I understand that the experience of giving her healing music to me held at least four gifts for Yvonne.

First, it allowed her to experience herself as overflowing. Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving describes three types of givers. The first type sees giving as depletion: such people experience giving as having less for themselves, so every act of giving becomes an act of diminishing their own supply. The second type sees giving as marketing: such people like to give only as part of an even exchange, so that every act of giving is matched by receiving something of equal value. The third type sees giving as indicative of abundance: such people experience joy in giving because their ability to give reminds them of how much they have and allows them to experience themselves as wealthy, even though, in an objective sense, they may be poor. Yvonne is the third type of giver. Giving to me afforded her the joy of experiencing herself as rich, abundant, overflowing, and generous.

Second, a crucial part of Yvonne's life purpose is developing and sharing her gift of music. Giving to me allowed her the soul satisfaction of fulfilling her purpose.

Third, Yvonne shared with me that giving to me of her music for four hours straight showed her that she has reserves of strength that she wasn't sure she had. This is because Yvonne had a stroke in the fall of 2009 and still has some limitations of movement on her left side. She also needs to expend more energy in performing tasks that were once automatic, which is tiring. Yvonne is still recovering from her stroke in a very real sense. After playing and singing for me all morning, Yvonne had the joy of realizing, "Wow! I do have the reserves of strength to play and sing healing music for someone for an extended period of time."

Fourth, Yvonne also shared with me that this post-stroke experience of giving has encouraged her to branch out and begin again to offer her healing music more widely in hospitals and clinics where she lives in Colorado. It deepens her knowing: "After the stroke, I still have an important musical gift to give. I have the stamina to do so. I can fulfill my life purpose. I can experience the joy of giving."

Hospital Experience #11: Yvonne - Healing Music Part 1

This is the eleventh in a series of posts on a recent experience at Ochsner Hospital - having a cardiac catheter ablation procedure to correct a heart arrhythmia. These posts describe and reflect on various aspects of the hospital experience. This eleventh post is the first of two posts in which I will reflect on the gift given me by Yvonne, a life-long friend and a pianist living in Colorado.

Throughout this hospital experience, Yvonne has supported me in many ways, including thinking of me and praying for me, contacting me before the procedure to express her love and concern, listening deeply to me, and most especially keeping vigil during the procedure. Yvonne kept vigil for me in a unique way: throughout the entire morning of my procedure, she played and sang healing music for me.

Yvonne has done this healing music for many people. She has done it for people who simply wanted the experience, for people undergoing illness or surgery or grief or trauma, and for people in the process of dying. She has done it for those who are physically present in the room with her and for those who are physically elsewhere.

Here is my understanding of the healing music Yvonne does. What I understand is that Yvonne sits at the piano and quiets her spirit, sets her intention to connect deeply with the spirit of the one for whom she is playing and singing, and begins to play. As she plays, early on, she feels herself slip into a place of connectedness. She then allows herself to be led to the pieces and songs she is to play and sing.

Yvonne says that, when she plays and sings in this way, she is very aware that something is being done through her rather than that she is doing something. She experiences herself as a channel through which gifts of the spirit world flow to others. These gifts do not originate with her. In fact, Yvonne is often in awe of what a healing music session evokes for those for whom she plays and sings. People often share this with Yvonne in the days or weeks after a session, but Yvonne herself leaves it entirely up to them whether or not to share, as they wish.

Some years ago, I experienced this healing music with Yvonne in person - that is, while physically present in the room with her. When I experienced this in person, the music had a deeply calming effect. It was in the evening at my home, so I went to bed right after the healing music session and slept very soundly. The calming effect lasted noticeably into the next day.

On the morning of my cardiac catheter ablation, Yvonne again did this healing music for me. Yvonne is not a morning person and she lives in the Mountain Time Zone (an hour earlier than the Central Time Zone where I am located in New Orleans), but she got up early enough to begin playing and singing at 7 a.m. MDT, and she did not stop until approximately 11 a.m. MDT when she received the phone call that the procedure was over and I was fine. Yvonne was with me in this special way the whole time.

POSTSCRIPT: I am writing this postscript after completing this post. I originally intended to write one post on Yvonne's gift of healing music. That was before I realized where this writing would take me. The writing has taken me to such a surprising insight that I have decided to end this post with that important insight. This post, then, will reflect on the gifts of comfort, presence, and healing that I received through Yvonne's playing and singing for me. My next post will continue my reflections on Yvonne's gift.

Here are some of the benefits I received from Yvonne's gift of healing music during my hospital experience.

COMFORT. This comfort was tangible for me. I truly felt comfort in knowing that my friend was with me throughout the time of my medical procedure. Yvonne devoted the entire morning to me in an intense and concentrated way. She wasn't thinking of me while also going about her daily tasks. She wasn't waiting to hear news of how the procedure went while reading a book. She concentrated her whole attention exclusively on me for four hours. This is hugely comforting.

PRESENCE. Yvonne was present with me. Although she was physically in Colorado while I was physically in New Orleans, she was more present than she would have been if she had been sitting physically right outside the procedure room waiting for news of the outcome while reading the newspaper, chatting on a cell phone, or eating a snack. In fact, the ONLY way in which Yvonne was not present was physically. She was present with me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

We get so caught up in the physical that, if someone isn't physically in the same location as we are, we experience them as not there, as absent. Yet physical presence is the most shallow way of being present. Unless other ways of being present are also involved, physical presence alone is useless. To use a drastic example, if an individual is physically having sex with his or her spouse while mentally and emotionally doing so with someone else, many people would consider this an act of infidelity even though the individual may never have approached that other person physically at all.

Mental presence, emotional presence, and spiritual presence are REAL ways of being present. I know that this is true, even though if remains intangible for me. That is, I didn't actually feel Yvonne's presence as she was playing and singing healing music for me. I simply knew that she was doing this, that she was truly present with me in this deep way - and this knowledge comforted me.

Yvonne does have a more tangible sense of non-physical presence. She told me that, as soon as she sat down at the piano to play and sing for me on the morning of my medical procedure, she could feel my presence right there beside her. She said, "It was as though you were right there in the room with me." I would say that it was more than that. I was right there in the Colorado piano room with Yvonne, and Yvonne was right there in the New Orleans procedure room with me - or perhaps we were right there with each other in a way that has nothing to do with space.

HEALING. The healing music played and sung by Yvonne healed me at a deep level, whether or not I am conscious of it. Actually, I am not conscious of the healing that went on and probably continues to go on as a result of Yvonne's gift. But I know that healing happened and is probably still happening - I know this because it is clear to me that concentrated energy has an effect. Yvonne was intensely concentrating her energy upon me for four hours. Something happened as a result, whether on not I am aware of it.

I might wonder - since Yvonne was playing and singing healing music for me - why I clashed with Nurse Dreadful and why I panicked in the procedure room. Shouldn't the healing music have produced calm? Not necessarily. I can think of at least two reasons why not.

First, I realize now that there is something I could have done and didn't do. In the weeks and days leading up to my procedure, I thought about the gift Yvonne was going to give me and felt comforted. However, on the morning of the procedure itself, I was so focused on getting through the procedure intact that I did not take time to align myself consciously with the healing music, to open myself consciously to receive this gift. I think I could have received more if I had done this.

Second, while feeling calm throughout hospital day would have been a gift that I would love to have received, I believe that the gift I actually needed to receive was far different. It is the gift of insight. The Nurse Dreadful clash and the procedure room panic have led to very useful insights about myself, as my blog posts show.

Also - and I am realizing this with amazement just this moment - I value the insights more than I value calmness. To find myself saying that I value insights more than calmness is HUGE! My life stance thus far has been very different. I have often expressed it like this: "I don't want to grow and become a better person - I just want to avoid pain and discomfort," and "I'd rather not learn the lessons life teaches because they are too painful - it's not worth it." But now, in this hospital experience, I am able to see that it IS worth it. Somehow, I am able to say, "It is worth it to have clashed with Nurse Dreadful and to have panicked in the procedure room because of the insights I have gained from those uncomfortable experiences."

Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever said this about any uncomfortable experience before! Before, I would have said: "No, it was too painful to reach those insights - it wasn't worth it." But this time, it IS worth it.

As I write this, I am becoming aware of just how great a shift this is in my thinking. My writing is also solidifying the shift, making it more concrete and real to me, so that I can choose to work with it in the future and make it a conscious part of my life.

I am also noticing something else about this. It is not quite true to say, "The discomfort of the clash and the panic is worth it because the discomfort is outweighed by the valuable insights." It is more than that. It is that the joy of the insights retro-actively infuses the clash and the panic. The pain of then is absorbed into the joy of now. It is not a question of weighing painful incidents against valuable insights and finding that the insights have greater weight. No. It is that the painful incidents get absorbed into the joy and value of the insights. I mean - the pain is transformed. The pain doesn't cause suffering any more - it causes joy.

I have NEVER experienced this before. All the pain in my life has caused me suffering. I have weighed the pain against the joy and decided that the small amount of joy simply isn't worth enduring the large amount of pain. Conclusion: Life isn't worth it. Resultant life stance: My life goal has been to get from here to the grave as safely and painlessly as possible. I have often said, "If it is true that we actually choose to come to earth, I must have chosen to do so in a moment of utter cosmic insanity." I have often imagined the day when a doctor will tell me, "You have just x amount of time to live," and with what relief I will exclaim, "Finally, finally, I am getting out of here - it will be over!"

But now I have had an experience that opens a whole new way to approach life. I have actually experienced being able to say, "This painful event is worth it because of the insights I have gained. Indeed, the value of the insights infuses the pain. The pain has lost its quality of suffering and has become part of the joy."

I would like to reach a place where I can also say, "This entire life is worth it," and "The pain of this life no longer causes me suffering but joy." For the first time, I glimpse this as a very real possibility.

I began this section saying that I knew that Yvonne's playing and singing had effected and was effecting healing in me even though I was not consciously aware of the healing. I am ending this section aware of a tremendous area of healing.

THIS is the healing I have received from Yvonne's gift of music - to have actually experienced the fact that pain can be transformed from suffering to joy and to know that life can truly be worth it.