A carol, from the French root “carole” is a song or dance of praise and joy. While often taken for granted during our holiday seasons, they have a long history that dates back thousands of years. When they were first written, carols were not specifically for Christmas. Instead, they were pagan songs, usually sung on…
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The Concordia Initiative is back with another concert, this time, for the holiday season! Our wonderful performers played and sang Christmas music as well as works by Chopin, Bach, Hindemith, Elgar, and Schuman. 3 contemporary dance performances were also part of the concert. Our music was performed for 21 nursing homes across the United States…
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It’s the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, and in addition to our work at memory care homes, the Chords for a Cause team wants to highlight the work of other nonprofits that work with Alzheimer’s patients on a daily basis. The Music and Memory non-profit organization caters to the millions of elderly Americans…
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Sweaty palms and cold, clammy fingers. Teeth rattling as the temperature plummets another ten degrees. Fingertips gnawing between skirt seams. Although many of us, performers, dread the pre-recital symptoms, they only add to the charm of a musical masterpiece. The scientific cause of stage fright, simply put, is our brain calculating the odds of failure.…
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Korean pop, or better known as K-Pop, features powerful dance routines, stunning performers, and catchy music. Starting off as a simple music fad, K-Pop now empowers its followers to create political change. In America, K-Pop fans overbooked a Tulsa Trump rally and overloaded a Dallas Police Department application for reporting Black Lives Matter protests with…
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ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a prominent neurobehavioral disorder in childhood and adolescence. Though ADHD is a chronic condition with symptoms experienced over a lifetime, ADHD mainly affects children and adolescents. ADHD, often shows up as the inability to concentrate for prolonged periods of time, being unable to follow instructions, having difficulty completing detailed…
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When humans first started making music, we most likely didn’t think very mathematically about the sounds we were making. Instruments were probably made to play notes that sounded good together, and we created some pretty beautiful music even with that. Now, it has become obvious that the more understanding of how notes relate can help…
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During the spring and summer of 2021, The Concordia Initiative led its performers through 3 more concert series in the months of March, June, and August 2021 to 16 nursing homes, 3 hospitals, 1 dialysis center, and 1 hospice care facility. These concerts’ lineup included: Audrey Zhou Avery Smith Caitlin Ramiscal Lauren Yoder Joseph Suess…
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For thousands of years, humans have been creating music that makes use of relationships between pitches. Called ‘harmony’, these groups of notes played simultaneously allow the human ear to perceive a new sound. In Western music, these relationships are easily understood by the human ear as well as quite simple to explain through scientific exploration.…
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I had a very strong sense that I had to stay involved in my own life to have a life that I wanted to live…Life is not linear…it’s a winding road. It’s not a straight shot…On that winding road, I got knocked down a lot of times. So I had to learn, all I had…
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