This past week I travelled to California for the national music therapy conference in San Diego. The music therapy community is small enough that conferences are kind of like a big family reunion, and are definitely as much about the networking, seeing acquaintances, having a good time, etc, as they are about the actual conference sessions. I found it to be a very different experience to attend as an intern than last year as a student; I knew a lot more people and was really able to absorb information in a more relevant way.
The highlight of conference was that AMTA and the recording association presented an award to Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the man who the movie The Soloist is based on. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It is the true story of an LA newspaper man who "discovers" a homeless man playing incredibly proficient music in parks and under overpasses. He finds out that the man was a Julliard cello student who dropped out after developing schizophrenia, and the rest of the movie is about the two men becoming friends and learning to trust each other. Mr. Ayers, the cellist, performed at the opening session of the conference, and again during a session I attended the next day. He and his sister were present for several days, and I also got to watch him jamming (on various instruments) with anyone who wanted to jump in and play. It was very evident how much he was invested in the music, and it was a beautiful inspiration for the work I do with individuals who have mental illnesses.
On the last day of conference, Sarah and I both came down with the flu (but not the swine flu, since I got the vaccine) and have been off from work ever since. This has complicated my end date a little; it's now likely that I'll have to stay up to an extra week longer than originally scheduled. Some people will do anything to postpone their return to the frigid North, huh?
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