The song began coming to life on Zoom, and later, in the parking lot of the Red Lion Diner in Southampton.
Masked and seated apart at safe distances, eight singers — all of them veterans, seniors, and women of color — linked lyrics into lines and threaded strands of melody into verses.
Voices of Valor, an award-winning, innovative, song-writing initiative for veterans, was founded eight years ago by Music For All Seasons co-directors Brian Dallow and Rena Fruchter and is based in Scotch Plains. It is the first of three programs supported this year by the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New…
In a ceremony in Trenton, New Jersey on May 19, 2019, MFAS’ Voices of Valor program was recognized for its extraordinary service to the community with the 2019 New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Award for Public Service. In its 2018/19 New Jersey program, Voices of Valor has been…
The powerful and moving songs on this CD reflect the original work of veterans, writing in groups of six to ten, over a period of nine weeks. Writing in a broad variety of styles, each group brings you into their world, sharing their intense, emotional, and deeply personal reflections on their lives in combat, and…
Can music heal? There’s been a great deal of study by neuroscientists on the
different ways music acts upon the brain, affecting our behavior, memory and the
like. But there is also growing scientific evidence attesting to its curative powers.
Many ancient cultures used sound and music for healing. Pythagoras called it
“music medicine.” In the Middle Ages, the study of…
I have been the guitarist with the Grammy-nominated jazz group Spyro Gyra for three decades, recording more than 20 albums and touring all over the world, playing for audiences of thousands. So what has drawn me to the Voices of Valor project, where I get to work in an intimate setting with small groups of veterans, writing songs?
I first heard…
