Music has the unique ability to bring people together and provide a space for emotional expression. For veterans, music has become a powerful tool for healing, and the Voices of Valor (VOV) program is helping them rediscover their strength and voice through the creation of original songs. Hammonton Gazette Article 31925
On the evening of February 10, 2025, ten brave combat veterans gathered in a conference room at Lyons VA Medical Center, where many of them also live. They are from different backgrounds and generations but the bonds formed between them are clear. Friends and family are also there, to support their loved one in their ongoing journey to...
TINTON FALLS – The sound of music is reverberating through Soldier On’s Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans community, where 13 residents recently wrote and recorded an original song, memorializing the feat on CD and video. The Voices of Valor program, part of the Music for All Seasons organization based in Scotch Plains, seeks to honor veterans through music, easing the...
Music For All Seasons celebrated its 30th anniversary on March 27 with a concert by participants of its Voices of Valor program at the Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center in Newark. On March 27, veterans Jeffrey Clyburn, Joseph Austin and Renee Walker were on the mics at this celebration backed by Ron Haney, Julio Fernandez, Melissa Guttman, Kirsten...
The innovative Voices of Valor song-writing program has been changing lives of veterans, including many who suffer from PTSD and homelessness following their military service. This year five New Jersey locations are hosting sessions of the award-winning program developed by Music For All Seasons (MFAS).
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 Jersey (JWFNJ), a donor-advised fund of the Jewish Community...
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 offering programs to the veterans at Lyons Hospital, Lyons, NJ; Veteran’s Haven North,...
Voices of Valor was honored with a special, first-ever "My Brother's Keeper Award" by Veteran's Haven North, a transitional housing program for homeless veterans, located in Glen Gardner, NJ. The award, in recognition and appreciation of the transformative effect of Voices of Valor on veterans participating in the program, was presented during the "Night of Thanks" banquet honoring...
The healing Voices of Valor songwriting and recording project of Scotch Plains-based Music for All Seasons has released a benefit CD to expand the program and impact more veterans Key Points The healing Voices of Valor veterans program has released a CD to raise awareness and funds Proceeds from "Coming Home: Songs of American Veterans" will help program...
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 struggling to reintegrate...
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,...
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...
MONTCLAIR, N.J. -- During stressful times as a combat medic in Afghanistan, Mason Sullivan found solace in Vivaldi. New Jersey native Nairobi Cruz was comforted by country music, a genre she had never heard before joining the Army. For Jose Mercedes, it was an eclectic iPod mix that helped him cope with losing an arm during a tour...
SCOTCH PLAINS — For the 27th time in less than two years, Voices of Valor is about to release a song recording that helped a group of veterans release the emotional wounds of war and other issues related to military service. The township-based initiative — founded three years ago by the therapeutic Music for All Seasons program and...
John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger Tom Hankerson of Levittown, PA listens to drum circle instructor Richard Reiter during a program called "Voices of Valor" that helps returning vets relieve and manage stress through music and songwriting. The program takes place inside the Rutgers student center in New Brunswick. NEW BRUNSWICK —Their musical tastes range from the Kinks to Betty Carter,...
