[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you most of you recognize that
this instrument is a saxophone and many
of you recognize that tune is take five
by Paul Desmond but what probably you
didn’t notice is the fact that I play my
saxophone in a very unusual way I play
my saxophone with only one hand
saxophones and for that matter all
commercially available musical
instruments are designed to be played
with two able-bodied facile hands but
the thing of it is I don’t have too good
hands 17 years ago I had a stroke that
paralyzed the left side of my body I had
no movement in my leg the left side of
my abdomen my left arm was paralyzed my
left hand had no movement the left side
of my neck was paralyzed the left side
of my face was paralyzed even the left
side of my tongue was paralyzed since at
the time of my stroke I was already a
professional musician and assistant
professor of music at the University of
Nebraska at Kearney my health created
some real problems for me so in an
effort for me to return to work teaching
and performing on the saxophone I worked
together with Jeff Stelling of Stelling
brass and ones to develop this
instrument that I just played for you
with one hand I’m now working to make
more instruments like mine available to
persons with disabilities so a person
with a disability an instrument like
this represents an opportunity for
undifferentiated participation in music
when I say undifferentiated
participation in music what I mean is
that with a well-designed musical
instrument a person with a disability
can make music with the same facility
with the same fluency indeed with as
much artistic integrity as an
able-bodied person playing a
conventional musical instrument
let’s consider the implications of an
instrument that like this just a bit
further when I played my saxophone for
you a moment ago you saw me as a
saxophone player nothing more nothing
less
that is the potential of an adaptive
musical instrument because of because
this instrument because of this
instrument my disability disappeared
this instrument at my hands enabled my
transformation from what had been a
person with a disability to lose the
with a disability and return to being
simply a person once again that’s a very
powerful change that is the power of an
adaptive musical instrument and that’s
what undifferentiated participation in
music is all about in the years since my
stroke I faced the battle which has been
emotionally painful and deeply personal
for a time I could not feed myself or
even walk seven steps to get to bathroom
and yet the whole time I knew that I was
still the same human being in deep
inside in my heart deep in my bones I
had the same aspirations I had the same
ambitions I had the same hopes and fears
and I still had the same desire to make
music as before my stroke until that
point my whole life had played itself
out in the medium of the musical world
music is how I made my living music was
how I recreative it’s what I did for fun
with my friends music is how I
celebrated religious holidays Christmas
Easter Lent national holidays fourth of
July or Memorial Day it didn’t matter
there was music happening it’s how I met
my wife music is what I do with my
children when I got home from work in
the evening so much so that my personal
identity was very tightly in match
in the musical world so that when for
quite some time it looked as if I would
never make music again I had the feeling
that the universe were trying to erase
my life’s work like the universe we’re
trying to erase my past my present and
my future the universe we’re trying to
erase my personal identity from
existence no you’re not a musician no
you never were a musician and no by
golly you’re never going to be a
musician in the future my whole life the
musical world has been my home it’s the
residents that I returned to after I go
off into other things so when this
extraordinary instrument came into life
into my life it became for me a sword
that I used to fight my way back home to
reclaim a vital part of my life that I
felt had been so unfairly taken away
from me maybe I overdosed on Harry
Potter a couple years ago but I honestly
feel that musical instruments like these
on that musical instrument like these
are magical creatures with the power to
transform human lives I simply don’t
have the words to express the joy and
redemption this instrument has brought
into my life and since I ran out of
words and I still have a couple of
minutes
I’ll play my saxophone for you once
again this time
this time you may you can probably more
easily note how I manage all the note
changes that on a conventional saxophone
are done with ten fingers I do with only
my right hand on this extraordinary
instrument designed and built by Jeff
Stelling this is music by Victor Marasco
it’s his piece titled blue Caprice
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you most of you recognize that
this instrument is a saxophone and many
of you recognize that tune is take five
by Paul Desmond but what probably you
didn’t notice is the fact that I play my
saxophone in a very unusual way I play
my saxophone with only one hand
saxophones and for that matter all
commercially available musical
instruments are designed to be played
with two able-bodied facile hands but
the thing of it is I don’t have too good
hands 17 years ago I had a stroke that
paralyzed the left side of my body I had
no movement in my leg the left side of
my abdomen my left arm was paralyzed my
left hand had no movement the left side
of my neck was paralyzed the left side
of my face was paralyzed even the left
side of my tongue was paralyzed since at
the time of my stroke I was already a
professional musician and assistant
professor of music at the University of
Nebraska at Kearney my health created
some real problems for me so in an
effort for me to return to work teaching
and performing on the saxophone I worked
together with Jeff Stelling of Stelling
brass and ones to develop this
instrument that I just played for you
with one hand I’m now working to make
more instruments like mine available to
persons with disabilities so a person
with a disability an instrument like
this represents an opportunity for
undifferentiated participation in music
when I say undifferentiated
participation in music what I mean is
that with a well-designed musical
instrument a person with a disability
can make music with the same facility
with the same fluency indeed with as
much artistic integrity as an
able-bodied person playing a
conventional musical instrument
let’s consider the implications of an
instrument that like this just a bit
further when I played my saxophone for
you a moment ago you saw me as a
saxophone player nothing more nothing
less
that is the potential of an adaptive
musical instrument because of because
this instrument because of this
instrument my disability disappeared
this instrument at my hands enabled my
transformation from what had been a
person with a disability to lose the
with a disability and return to being
simply a person once again that’s a very
powerful change that is the power of an
adaptive musical instrument and that’s
what undifferentiated participation in
music is all about in the years since my
stroke I faced the battle which has been
emotionally painful and deeply personal
for a time I could not feed myself or
even walk seven steps to get to bathroom
and yet the whole time I knew that I was
still the same human being in deep
inside in my heart deep in my bones I
had the same aspirations I had the same
ambitions I had the same hopes and fears
and I still had the same desire to make
music as before my stroke until that
point my whole life had played itself
out in the medium of the musical world
music is how I made my living music was
how I recreative it’s what I did for fun
with my friends music is how I
celebrated religious holidays Christmas
Easter Lent national holidays fourth of
July or Memorial Day it didn’t matter
there was music happening it’s how I met
my wife music is what I do with my
children when I got home from work in
the evening so much so that my personal
identity was very tightly in match
in the musical world so that when for
quite some time it looked as if I would
never make music again I had the feeling
that the universe were trying to erase
my life’s work like the universe we’re
trying to erase my past my present and
my future the universe we’re trying to
erase my personal identity from
existence no you’re not a musician no
you never were a musician and no by
golly you’re never going to be a
musician in the future my whole life the
musical world has been my home it’s the
residents that I returned to after I go
off into other things so when this
extraordinary instrument came into life
into my life it became for me a sword
that I used to fight my way back home to
reclaim a vital part of my life that I
felt had been so unfairly taken away
from me maybe I overdosed on Harry
Potter a couple years ago but I honestly
feel that musical instruments like these
on that musical instrument like these
are magical creatures with the power to
transform human lives I simply don’t
have the words to express the joy and
redemption this instrument has brought
into my life and since I ran out of
words and I still have a couple of
minutes
I’ll play my saxophone for you once
again this time
this time you may you can probably more
easily note how I manage all the note
changes that on a conventional saxophone
are done with ten fingers I do with only
my right hand on this extraordinary
instrument designed and built by Jeff
Stelling this is music by Victor Marasco
it’s his piece titled blue Caprice
[Music]
[Music]
you
Please follow and like us: