James Gaertner

For expressions of sheer joy, just look at the faces of the artists in the documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. The documentary tells the story of the Silk Road Project from its…

My mother celebrated her 90th birthday recently.  Those family members who could came and ate and laughed and retold the timeless stories that never seem to age.  And neither does my mother.  "For Eileen" is based on a song written…

Check out this TED-Ed video - "How playing an instrument benefits your brain."  Then dust off some music and practice it.  Give your brain a workout! f

I won't claim that Emily Dickinson's poem was the conscious inspiration for my piece "How the Sun Rose," but I am sure it was "working" in my subconscious.
  I'll tell you how the Sun rose --
A ribbon at a…

Stop time for moment.  Take a time out.  Listen to the Brahm's timeless Intermezzo Op. 118 in A major.  Here are two performances.  One by Arthur Rubenstein and another by Radu Lupu.

What a phrase!  Pure Emily Dickinson.  With irony she expresses the emotional content of the encounter between artist and spectator in an art form.  Philosophy Now devotes much of its current issue (#108) to essays on art.  What is…

Such reflections populate Ethan Hawke's joyful film "Seymour: an Introduction."  The thoughts are those of Seymour Bernstein, once an acclaimed concert pianist, now a beloved teacher, mentor, coach, and philosopher.  In the film, Mr. Bernstein shares his invaluable insights…

 "Music is a therapy. It is a communication far more powerful than words, far more immediate, far more efficient."  
Yehudi Menuhin's observation attests to the healing power of music.  
Pianist Greg Howlett has published a web site - healing music.org…

Hart Crane's images in this poem are so vivid and true.  I suspect the song and the bird in the first stanza inspired me when writing "Coast the Wind."
  Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure,…

I never fail to hear Miles or Charlie Parker or Satchmo's Band while reading this terrific poem. 
Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes Sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
Go to it, O jazzmen.

Sling…