Music
Changes to RBA Act will further entrench the depoliticisation of economic policy and reduce democratic accountability
Today, I consider the latest development in the entrenchment of neoliberalism in the Australian policy sector, specifically, the latest decision by the Treasurer to excise his powers under Section 11 of the Reserve Bank Act 1959, which allowed the Treasurer to overrule RBA policy decisions if they considered them not to be in the national…
A Carnegie Hall Concert Series Designed for Mental Health
Imagine you go to a concert at the esteemed Carnegie Hall in New York. Instead of sitting in a chair, you are invited to make yourself comfortable on soft floor cushions or a yoga mat. Rather than being shushed, you are encouraged to connect with your neighbor. And at the moment when the first musical notes would normally sound, a host invites you to breathe in and out mindfully. Even the lighting is softer and warmer.
“We hung fabric to make the space more inviting and cozy,” says Sarah Johnson, director of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI). “Given everything that people are navigating in today’s world, we wanted to intentionally craft a communal musical experience to maximize the health benefits of attending a performance.”
Premiering earlier this month, Carnegie Hall’s ongoing series of 16 Well-Being Concerts isn’t only designed to entertain — it aims to deliver tangible health benefits. According to a sweeping 2019 World Health Organization report, making and listening to music is associated with reduced stress, anxiety and loneliness.
“We’re trying to really hold the space for the audience to have as fruitful of an experience as possible during the concert. It’s a really cool way to dig into the meaning of the content.” Credit: Fadi Kheir
The report — along with findings that a significant percentage of Americans who suffer from anxiety and depression don’t receive adequate care — inspired the series of performances. Some are open to the general public, while others are curated for specific audiences such as health care workers, veterans or people impacted by the justice system.
“We started to wonder, what could we do?” Johnson says of the series’ genesis. “How could we create an opportunity for people to maximize the potential well-being impact of a live musical experience?”
When vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles starts singing the first tunes of “Conscious Mind,” some listeners close their eyes to focus on her crystal clear, soulful voice. “Love the world” is the refrain. Charles and her husband, pianist Jarrett Cherner, finished writing their album Tone during the pandemic. “Trying to cultivate loving kindness and mindfulness during these trying times,” Charles remembers. “And then sharing that loving kindness outward into the world. We could never have known at the time how well it would fit into this space now.”
Use the player above to experience a Well-Being Concert curated with music from the artists in the series.
Both the artists and the attendees say they experience the Well-Being Concerts quite differently from your typical performance. Instead of watching the artists on an elevated stage, the attendees are on the same level and form a circle around the performers. “It feels much more connected,” is how Charles describes the difference. “We’re trying to really hold the space for the audience to have as fruitful of an experience as possible during the concert. It’s a really cool way to dig into the meaning of the content.”
Carnegie Hall piloted the Well-Being Concerts this spring mainly for health care providers and people impacted by the justice system. The response was so enthusiastic that the Weill Institute expanded the series for this season.
“As soon as I walked into the room, I felt my heart rate going down,” one attendee noted after a performance. “I felt my breathing coming back. And it just continued throughout the event.” Credit: Fadi Kheir
It hosted the first Well-Being Concert of this season on November 11 for health care workers at New York City’s public hospitals, because of the “acute challenge for the health care world in the last few years,” Johnson explains. “We’ve all been so fragmented and pulled in a million directions, the events are meant to offer relief.” The audience was capped at 100 people to create a sense of intimacy.
Both Johnson and strategic advisor Ian Koebner take care not to stigmatize or exclude any attendees. “We take an expansive approach because we’re all swimming in very stressful, isolating waters, and we can all stand to be supported more deeply,” says Koebner, who also hosted the first Well-Being Concert. At the beginning, he invites the audience to breathe mindfully and introduces a very simple form of mindfulness meditation, though he avoids using the word meditation so as to not feed into any preconceived notions.
Crushed by negative news?
Sign up for the Reasons to be Cheerful newsletter.
[contact-form-7]
“As soon as I walked into the room, I felt my heart rate going down,“ one attendee noted after a performance. “I felt my breathing coming back. And it just continued throughout the event…When I left, there out on the street, everything was a bit brighter and calmer and nicer.”
One nurse said after the event, “I wasn’t aware it was possible to be in a space that felt so peaceful in this city.”
Carnegie’s series isn’t the first to address mental health through performance. The United Kingdom pioneered a program called Arts on Prescription as psychosocial support for patients experiencing loneliness or social isolation. The program has run for more than two decades and shows benefits for mental health, chronic pain and the management of acute and chronic illnesses.
“Arts in general, and music in particular, can be very therapeutic,” Koebner says. “Reflective group listening in a concert setting can have a positive physiological, psychological and social impact. For instance, the stress hormone cortisol decreases. Researchers have measured a decrease in anxiety and depression.”
“The programs have an effect on us as well,” says the organizer. “We who do this work are changed by it, too.” Credit: Fadi Kheir
Koebner worked for ten years in arts-based conflict resolution before joining Carnegie Hall. A licensed acupuncturist, he has a PhD in healthcare leadership from UC Davis, where he was also the director of integrative pain medicine. This career path led him to wanting to “be a partner in addressing the burden of chronic pain and loneliness.” He quotes studies that found listening to music can “reduce symptoms of depression, increase well-being through the creation of social connection and provide an important resource for self-development, recovery and quality of life among individuals with long-term illnesses.”
The concert series is “an artistic exploration as well as a laboratory,” according to Koebner. Its impact will be evaluated in cooperation with The Berkeley Social Interaction Lab at UC Berkeley. Under the guidance of psychology professor Dacher Keltner, the researchers study the experience of live concerts with a randomized controlled trial about the impact of the season.
The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall has more than 14 years of experience with presenting concerts in diverse and often high-stress public spaces, including hospitals, senior care residences and schools, as well as with people experiencing homelessness. “We want to think about how to support well-being concerts outside of the very kind of rarefied air of Carnegie Hall,” Koebner says.
For instance, the WMI has been offering a program called Musical Connections in maximum-security correctional facilities like Sing Sing. Sarah Elizabeth Charles has served as a vocal coach for women at New York’s jail on Rikers Island as part of the Weill Institute’s Lullaby Project, writing lullabies with and for young mothers. Charles calls the experience of bringing her music into prisons “life-changing.” The Lullaby Project explores what role music can play in mitigating stress for expecting families and new parents, proving that music “can spur language development and moderate stress.” It also helped Charles work through her own miscarriage and pregnancy.
“The programs have an effect on us as well,” Johnson says. “I found the concert really helpful to me personally. It was quite peaceful, lovely and contemplative. We who do this work are changed by it, too. With this work, there is the potential for 360 degrees of impact.”
The response to the first Well-Being Concerts has been encouraging, but the organizers know that mental health challenges are rarely resolved with one performance.
“The concert felt very healing,” one attendee said after one of the pilot concerts in spring. “But I’m very aware that I am now going back out onto the streets of Gotham.”
Johnson’s team is looking into ways to prolong the impact. “How do you extend the impact of a single event?” Koebner asks. He is helping to create resources for the audience –– for instance, curated playlists attendees can download, and short recording snippets of the concert that he sends out for several weeks afterward to prolong the impact.
At the end of the concert, Charles and Cherner invite the audience to sing along and lead the room in lyrics that could hardly be more fitting: “Be here and now, living life out loud.”
The post A Carnegie Hall Concert Series Designed for Mental Health appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
Electricity network companies profit gouging because government regulatory oversight has failed
It’s Wednesday, and today I discuss a recently published analysis that has found that Australian privatised electricity network companies are recording massive supernormal profits because the government has been to slack in its regulatory oversight. Electricity prices have been a major driver of the current inflationary episode and we now have analysis that shows where…
Radio 2 Celebrates Doctor Who @60
BBC Radio 2 is marking Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary with a number of special programmes available worldwide on BBC Sounds.
Over two new shows, Jo Whiley takes a trip through the Whoniverse to discover the amazing stories behind the rise, fall, and subsequent resurrection of a British institution.
- Whiley hears how the changing attitudes of Britain have been reflected through the TARDIS in a tale that features Dalekmania, Dad’s Army, Mary Whitehouse, Ridley Scott, the Cybermen, Hans Zimmer, the Beatles and the JFK assassination.
- With new and archive interviews from Doctors and companions past and present, including Peter Capaldi, Patrick Troughton, William Hartnell, Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, Sophie Aldred, Bonnie Langford, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Louise Jameson and showrunner Russell T Davies
- In the concluding part of this documentary, Whiley finds out how despite being cancelled by the BBC, the combination of its fan base, a drinks party and a forgotten BBC sitcom combined to help bring one of Britain's greatest cultural institutions back to our screens. Along the way we hear never before heard tales from the teams behind the hugely successful reboot including Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall, plus Doctors and companions past and present including Matt Smith, David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, Christopher Eccleston, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Aldred, Bonnie Langford, Ncuti Gatwa, Sylvester McCoy, Matt Lucas, John Simm, Billie Piper and Kylie Minogue.
Meanwhile, former Doctors, companions, and alumni of the series, introduce the music that has soundtracked their lives and careers, and talk about their involvement with Doctor Who in a series of 9x My Life In A Mixtapes, featuring:
Peter Davison<\/a> (the fifth Doctor)
Sylvester McCoy<\/a> (the seventh Doctor)
Janet Fielding<\/a> (Tegan)
Bonnie Langford<\/a> (Mel)
Sophie Aldred<\/a> (Ace)
Nicholas Briggs<\/a> (Voice of the Daleks, Cybermen and numerous other monsters)
Segun Akinola<\/a> (Doctor Who composer during the Jodie Whittaker era)
Ruth Madeley<\/a> (Doctor Who newcomer)
Plus from the archives, Spiderman star Andrew Garfield<\/a> (who guest starred in Doctor Who in 2007).
The music includes composer Murray Gold's best-known Doctor Who themes, the classic years of Doctor Who are also featured by the Radiophonic Workshop's Mark Ayres and Peter Howell. And there are brand new works premiered including The Woman Who Fell to Earth, a full-length suite composed by Segun Akinola and three of Murray Gold's new works, heard here for the very first time before making their debut in the new season of Doctor Who in 2024.
All episodes of Radio 2 Celebrates Doctor Who at 60 can be found here<\/a>
And in a bonus episode of the ‘Zoe Ball and Friends<\/a>’ podcast, David Tennant and Russell T Davies join Zoe to look ahead to the show’s 60th anniversary celebrations
‘Giving Women Credit is a Good Place to Start’: Harassment and Bullying in the Music Industry
Newsletter offer
Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive editorial emails from the Byline Times Team.
Speaking to DJ Camz, a Brazilian DJ and music producer about whether she has experienced any harassment during her career, she replies: “Yes, there has been a few times. It has occurred backstage, onstage – DJs, managers and security being aggressive and disrespectful.”
DJ Camz remembers a few years ago, when she was performing at a festival in London and was watching another artist, a famous DJ's tour manager grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off the stage that she was running because she was making videos of that artist. “There was no apology from the tour manager as he believed, in his mind, he was doing the right thing.”
Whether enough is being done to prevent harassment within the music industry, DJ Camz believes “most behaviour goes unpunished” and goes on to explain a recent story she was made aware of about a DJ who had been accused by one woman of harassment, with others coming forward with similar accusations. The woman who made the initial accusation was portrayed as a ‘crazy’ fan who had been rejected by the DJ.
According to DJ Camz, there is verbal and sexual harassment towards women in the music industry “because we are perceived as inferior".
"We have had many cases of women coming forward about sexual abuse and being painted as crazy, always fuelled by the general audience's opinion that 'this person is too nice' to do something like this," she says. "I think giving women credit is a good place to start.”
The Musicians’ Union, which represents more than 33,000 musicians, works toward protecting the rights of its members and is fighting for fairness in the music industry. It conducted a survey of its members back in 2019 to understand how prevalent sexual harassment was within the music industry. Around 800 members responded and the results showed that almost half – 48% – had experienced sexual harassment; and more than 10% had witnessed sexual harassment on a regular basis.
EXCLUSIVE
GB News Star Dan Wootton Unmasked in Cash-for-Sexual Images Catfishing Scandal
In the first part of its three-year special investigation, Byline Times reveals the accounts of victims targeted by the powerful TV presenter
Dan Evans and Tom Latchem
Key findings from the survey also highlighted that almost two-thirds – 61% – feel they are more at risk of sexual harassment because they work on a freelance basis and most contracts don’t include provisions for dealing with incidents of sexual harassment.
John Shortell, head of equality, diversity and inclusion at the Musicians’ Union, says allegations come from “across the board" and "can range from racism to homophobia, sexual assault and rape, every type of discrimination that you can think of”.
Shortell looks after Safe Space Reporting, a mechanism created in 2018 whereby anyone in the music industry can report anonymously complaints of sexism, sexual harassment and sexual abuse. “The reports that we receive are horrific, from inappropriate touching to rape and sexual assault.”
He points out that 99.9% of reports that are received are from women. “I would say 100% that the perpetrators are men. We do receive reports from men but it’s usually men being sexually harassed by other men.”
Shortell says that the type of cases the union deals with are as wide-ranging as “inappropriate sexist comments being left on sheet notes for women musicians; executives forcibly trying to kiss artists, pupils being groomed by music teachers... and several incidents of rape reported to us, but people will not report these to the police”.
He says members usually do not want to carry forward their complaint as they are too scared of losing work and not being believed.
“So far, we have had 25 cases through Safe Space this year which range from name-calling to rape.”
Since the 2019 survey was published, there have been no material improvements, other than that people are willing to listen more: “Earlier this year, the UK Government held an inquiry into Misogyny within the Music Industry and I hope the Government listen to the recommendations from that report and we see change”.
Don't miss a story
“At the beginning of the year,” he says, “we ran a project with Help Musicians which was called the Musicians’ Census That is, to my knowledge is the largest piece of data collected on musicians to date and we just had short of 6,000 responses. It wasn’t just on sexual harassment, we looked at demographics, earnings, career barriers, discrimination and much more. We really want to see positive change for people who work in the music industry.”
He says the Musicians’ Census will release insight reports over the next 12 months.
Joe Hastings is the manager of the Bullying and Harassment Service at Help Musicians where he oversees a 24/7 confidential helpline, created last year to deal with issues of bullying and harassment within the music industry.
“When people call, they can access confidential space and they will speak to highly trained therapists who can spot emotional needs and they are trained to support people, informally and formally,” he says.
The helpline is open to anyone who works in the industry – artists, freelancers, event coordinators and any other roles which are based in the music business.
“I would like to see a significant improvements for the music industry and fundamentally what would really be beneficial for freelancers is something that really empowers and manages their relationships and what they should expect from people," Hastings adds. "A really good understanding of boundaries and how people want to be treated in this industry would be very helpful.”
My blog is flying today
My time in Japan this year has come to an end (sob). It is back home for me and I will have to wait until next year before I return. At any rate, today I have no time to write a post so you will have to be content listening to the music I have…
Cartoon: Dagnut Dalrymple's Culture war country
Follow me on Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, or at my website.
Going Live
There were times when the drama in the lives of certain streamers conquered our interest in the show. One curator, after skipping from feed to feed, found a streamer who would go on to broadcast heroically for nearly the remainder of the night, and we stuck with her, too. She had brought her young child. At one point, the child asked: “Why are you crying?” “Because I’m having the best time with you.”
End of the Tour
But hearing the originator in person, with all that is missing as well as the new qualities of continuity, age, rust, wear, and wearing away—it’s moving, almost to the point of awe, or holiness. All the more so the better you know the recorded originals. The compensations or losses are the point. Plus the fact of the continuity of the person—that they are still here, performing for you.
On Legends
The vibe was very West Coast: everyone looked like someone I’d played in a Seattle band with a decade ago. Cowboy boots and fleece, a lot of craft beer and sleeve tattoos, #vanlifers with fedoras and rainbow Pendleton blankets, earth-toned knitwear and dusty Chacos (the “pretty” kind with the toe loop), big Indigo Girls energy. I’ve been in New York too long; I don’t own clothes like this anymore.