A student—I will call her Rebecca—tells our class that the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Cathy’s Waltz” has held a special place in her heart since childhood, when she would daydream about waltzing joyfully and freely to it. She explains this was because she had polio when she was a girl and assumed dancing would be something she’d never do. She says despite her physical challenges, this piece of music still brings her much happiness.
Welcome to “The Amazing Power of Music,” a class I’ve taught since the spring of 2010 at the U of M’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, also known as OLLI.
So writes Jenzi Silverman (BA ’92, MA ’95, PhD ’08) for The Last Word column in Minnesota Alumni magazine (Winter 2024). Read Silverman's full story about the power of music to heal, empower, and conquer things we think we cannot do.
Excerpt courtesy Minnesota Alumni magazine.
You can learn more about Silverman in Bach to Rock and Roll: Jenzi Silverman Teaches How Music Heals, in the winter 2023 issue of Manadala (Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing).
