Harmony & Healing

Harmony & Healing Harmony Booking Co.

connects Western Massachusetts with trusted live music and entertainment, offering roots, traditional bands, comedy, and specialty acts for weddings, private events, and community stages.

Hampshire College gave me something no other institution ever had. It gave me permission.Hampshire allowed me to experim...
04/15/2026

Hampshire College gave me something no other institution ever had. It gave me permission.

Hampshire allowed me to experiment in musical ways that no other previous institution would permit. I came to Hampshire a button-down classical violinist with certificates from heavily structured classical music institutions. But Hampshire gave me PERMISSION to break out of my box and try new things. Lucky for me, my first year advisor was a great musician and recording artist of note: Ray Copeland, the flugelhorn player and Jazz historian....

Hampshire allowed me to experiment in musical ways that no other previous institution would permit. I came to Hampshire a button-down classical violinist with certificates from heavily structured c…

Quote of the Day: “Music is not a universal language. It is a universal activity.” ~ David ReckExample of a Gamelan Orch...
04/14/2026

Quote of the Day: “Music is not a universal language. It is a universal activity.” ~ David Reck

Example of a Gamelan Orchestra, not David Reck's David Reck: Listening Across Worlds There are teachers who give you information, and there are teachers who quietly change how you hear the world. For me, David Reck was the latter. I studied with him at a time when music was already a big part of my life, but his approach opened something different....

Example of a Gamelan Orchestra, not David Reck’s David Reck: Listening Across Worlds There are teachers who give you information, and there are teachers who quietly change how you hear the wo…

Hampshire: A Wild Idea That Changed My LifeI arrived at Hampshire in the fall of 1980 thinking I knew who I was. I came ...
04/14/2026

Hampshire: A Wild Idea That Changed My Life

I arrived at Hampshire in the fall of 1980 thinking I knew who I was. I came in as a biology major, grounded in science, but already carrying music with me from years at New England Conservatory and time at Apple Hill. At the time, those felt like parallel tracks. Hampshire was the place where those tracks slowly, quietly, and sometimes confusingly began to merge....

I arrived at Hampshire in the fall of 1980 thinking I knew who I was. I came in as a biology major, grounded in science, but already carrying music with me from years at New England Conservatory an…

Quote of the Day: “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” ~ Franz SchubertThere are moments ...
04/10/2026

Quote of the Day: “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” ~ Franz Schubert

There are moments in music that don’t feel constructed at all. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t strive. They simply arrive, as if they had always been there. That is the world of Franz Schubert. In the arc of this series, after the motion and light of Felix Mendelssohn, Schubert brings us somewhere quieter, but deeper. The movement slows. The line opens....

There are moments in music that don’t feel constructed at all. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t strive. They simply arrive, as if they had always been there. That is the world of Franz Sc…

New Song: Nashawannuck Brook RestorationThere’s something steady and reassuring about a place being given back its origi...
04/10/2026

New Song: Nashawannuck Brook Restoration

There’s something steady and reassuring about a place being given back its original purpose. Not rebuilt. Not redesigned. Simply allowed to return to what it always was. That’s the feeling behind my new song, Nashawannuck Brook Restoration, inspired by the ongoing work at Pine Grove in Northampton. For years, that land was a golf course. Carefully shaped, maintained, controlled....

There’s something steady and reassuring about a place being given back its original purpose. Not rebuilt. Not redesigned. Simply allowed to return to what it always was. That’s the feeling behind m…

Quote of the Day: “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.” ~ Felix MendelssohnThere is a kind of music that n...
04/08/2026

Quote of the Day: “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.” ~ Felix Mendelssohn

There is a kind of music that never feels heavy, even when it is deeply felt. It moves, it lifts, it breathes without strain. That is the world of Felix Mendelssohn. After the shared, passing line of Alexander Borodin, Mendelssohn brings something different into focus. The line still moves between players, but now it does so with a kind of natural motion, almost like wind through leaves or water over stone....

There is a kind of music that never feels heavy, even when it is deeply felt. It moves, it lifts, it breathes without strain. That is the world of Felix Mendelssohn. After the shared, passing line …

New Tune: “A Fig For A Kiss” – Slip JigSome tunes feel like they were built to move, and “A Fig for a Kiss” is one of th...
04/08/2026

New Tune: “A Fig For A Kiss” – Slip Jig

Some tunes feel like they were built to move, and “A Fig for a Kiss” is one of them. It’s a slip jig in 9/8 time, which gives it that rolling, almost circular motion. Not quite the straight drive of a double jig, and not as grounded as a reel. It lifts and turns as it goes, and if you lean into that rhythm, the tune almost plays itself....

Some tunes feel like they were built to move, and “A Fig for a Kiss” is one of them. It’s a slip jig in 9/8 time, which gives it that rolling, almost circular motion. Not quite the straight drive o…

New Tune: The Rambling PitchforkThere’s something about an old Irish jig that never wears out its welcome. “The Rambling...
04/08/2026

New Tune: The Rambling Pitchfork

There’s something about an old Irish jig that never wears out its welcome. “The Rambling Pitchfork” is one of those tunes. It’s been around since at least the mid-1800s, passed from player to player, picking up different names and small variations along the way, but always keeping that same forward motion that makes it feel alive under the fingers....

There’s something about an old Irish jig that never wears out its welcome. “The Rambling Pitchfork” is one of those tunes. It’s been around since at least the mid-1800s, passed from player to playe…

Quote of the Day: “Music is a language which expresses the inexpressible.” ~ Aleksandr BorodinThere is a moment in music...
04/07/2026

Quote of the Day: “Music is a language which expresses the inexpressible.” ~ Aleksandr Borodin

There is a moment in music that doesn’t belong to any one player. You feel it most clearly in Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2, especially in the Nocturne. A melody begins in one instrument, fully formed, warm and singing. Then, almost without you noticing, it moves. Another instrument takes it, not as a copy, but as a continuation....

There is a moment in music that doesn’t belong to any one player. You feel it most clearly in Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2, especially in the Nocturne. A melody begins in one instrument…

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