The Power of Music: A National Television Program

The year 2009 brought together a powerful creative coalition of professionals, united to show and tell the world about the magic of music and its positive effects on the sometimes cruel afflictions of humankind. The intent of this group is to produce a well-researched documentary-style program to air nationally on PBS. The show is the brainchild of the folks at the CreativeBridge Coalition, and is just one of several music-related projects they've undertaken.

Music therapy has a history that goes back to its official roots in Michigan as a research subject prior to the end of World War II. In 1949, the American Music Therapy Associaton (AMTA) was formed and still exists today as a strong advocacy group for utilizing music therapy in a variety of ways to treat various human conditions, including autism.

The small team working on this television project is committed to putting together a world-class production by going on location to key settings around North America, documenting cases of music therapy being used to help people of all ages. We'll use award-winning writers, producers, composers and post-production personnel.

This is a story too few people know about. We will change that by putting it in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

For information on the team members and also locations we've already visited, read on...

Project Team to San Diego

The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) recently gathered for their annual conference in San Diego, California. And our project's team was there, shooting in High Definition and learning a lot about music therapy and specifically its use in treating those with varying degrees of autism.

The event was held from November 10th through the 15th at the Town & Country Resort in the city's Mission Valley area. This project's team members who traveled to the conference were Bill Bodine, Greg Frederick and Mark DuMond.

More than a dozen music therapy industry professionals were interviewed on camera. Here is a list of some of them:

• Cathy Knoll, a very busy and active therapist based in Stephanville, Texas
• Julie Guy, who operates her music therapy business in San Diego
• Ronna Kaplan of Cleveland, Ohio, who is the incoming president of the AMTA
• Dr. Petra Kern, based in Santa Barbara, California, and board certified to practice music therapy in three different countries
  
• Judy Simpson, who specializes in government relations on behalf of the AMTA
• Amy Furman, a music therapist and educator from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area
• Marcia Humpal, AMTA Vice President and Conference Program Chair
  
• Kalani, a music therapist and noted percussionist

We'd like to thank all of those who sat down with us to be interviewed. We came away from the conference very enlightened, so to say we learned a lot would be quite the understatement. The footage and knowledge gathered at the conference on the part of our team forms the basic framework on which to build this program

The next AMTA annual conference is scheduled for November 17-21, 2010 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Here are some photos from our visit to the conference:

Greg Frederick, Mark DuMond and Bill Bodine with music therapist Julie Guy

Greg Frederick, right, with music therapist and percussionist Kalani

Greg Frederick and Bill Bodine conduct an interview on display floor

Bill Bodine and Mark DuMond enjoy the San Diego weather

Meet the Project Team

It takes a talented and focused team to pull off a project as ambitious as this one. Here are the primary people who have conspired to put this program together.

BILL BODINE

Bill is a producer/composer/arranger/bassist who has been a fixture in the Los Angeles music community for 35 years. He began his professional music career in Youngstown, Ohio before moving to Los Angeles in 1972, when he began touring and recording with such notables as Van Morrison, Olivia Newton-John, Melissa Manchester, Joan Armatrading, Cher, and Sergio Mendez.

His television work included eight years in the Star Search House Band and two seasons on the New Gong Show, as well as composing for series including ABC’s “Second Noah” and “Judge Judy.” As a Grammy winning composer, he was privileged to write songs for the likes of Glen Fry of the Eagles and Manhattan Transfer.

Meanwhile, Bill’s company, Bill Bodine Music, composed scores for over 300 television commercials for clients including Honda, McDonald’s, Nike, Toyota, Gillette, HBO, Fox Network, and NBC.

DAN MARSHALL

Dan Marshall, AA, BS, MS, PhD, is a former elementary and middle school teacher in the US and Australia and Professor Emeritus of Education at the Pennsylvania State University, where he served most recently as Professor-in-Charge of the Educational Leadership Program. Before his years at Penn State, he served as Associate Dean and faculty member at the National College of Education (National-Louis University) in Evanston, IL.

Dan's primary areas of academic expertise include curriculum studies and initial teacher preparation. He has also studied and published in early childhood education, LGBT issues in education, home schooling, and popular music. He has been active in numerous professional associations, including the American Educational Research Association, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the Curriculum & Pedagogy Group.

GREG FREDERICK

Greg has used his backgrounds of both music and television in wondrous ways over the years. He's been a professional musician for more than 35 years, and has shared the stage with many luminaries such as Eric Burdon, Buddy Miles, Bo Diddley, Bruce Forman and Vince Neal. His current band, The Rogue Suspects, has played some 140 gigs just this year.

Frederick has also been working professionally in the world of television production for the past several decades. He worked in the southern California area, then the Monterey/Carmel part of coastal California, and then worked his way up the west coast to southern Oregon, where he currently is based. He managed TV production for KSYS, the PBS station located in Medford, Oregon, and also Pilot Rock Productions, the premier TV production house in the southern Oregon and northern California region.

MARK DuMOND

Mark is an award-winning writer/producer who has been working in the media business since the 1970s. After spending a decade in the newspaper business in California and Alaska, he started a television career in 1984 as production manager for NBC affiliate KTUU and Syntax Productions in Anchorage. DuMond continued that career path in 1988, becoming production manager for California Oregon Broadcasting Inc. (COBI) headquartered in Medford, Oregon. He became founding general manager for COBI’s digital production powerhouse, COBI Digital, in 1994. He ended his employment at COBI in 2007, becoming a free lance writer, producer, camera operator and designer based in Seattle, Washington.

Since situating himself in Seattle, DuMond has been working on a number of projects and clients, including Energy Rush TV, CNS Productions, Coming Attractions Theatres, StrawJet, Alliant International University, and the Marshall Goldsmith Graduate School of Management.