Your Song, Your Story

“The power of music for healing”

Music speaks to everyone, and given the right outlet, anyone can speak through music. The emotional qualities of music are vast, and its therapeutic value is tremendous. Your Song, Your Story presents a means for children to express their emotions by giving them the opportunity to form their own, personal song. By crafting their own lyrics and melodies in a style that they connect with, children will discover the pride of musical creation, the healing qualities of artistic expression, and in the end, have a recording of their song, and their story.

About the Program:

Your Song, Your Story is an innovative Music Therapy program that has proved rewarding for children who have encountered loss or trauma. Your Song, Your Story is designed to help kids regardless of their past musical experiences, write and perform their very own song. Through this interactive workshop, children, as group or individually, take part in creative exercises that facilitate the writing of lyrics and melodies. From there, kids explore the different types of music with which they identify, and learn about the musical elements that make that music work. Next, we apply these concepts to composing chords and rhythm and create a song. Once the basic structure is established, the song is rehearsed, performed and recorded on site. After the workshop, the song is arranged with instruments fitting to the style of the song, and is then sent back as a fully produced, professional recording. Whether the children choose to write directly about the challenges in their lives, or about something that makes them happy, they will have expressed themselves in a positive way, which helps facilitate emotional healing. Children will be exposed to the art of crafting music and the therapeutic value of artistic expression. On top of that, they will be able to share the finished version of their song with friends and family.

Biography:

Billy Libby is a graduate of The University of Southern Maine and a singer/songwriter/multi-­‐ instrumentalist from Portland Maine, currently living in New York City. Over the past ten years, his music and bands have been featured on the radio worldwide, and have taken him on tour, nationally and internationally. He has been working with children, including children with special needs, for several years and became interested in working with grieving children following an award winning college service learning project at the Center for Grieving Children, in Portland, Maine. In working with grieving children, Billy found a natural fit for his talents in creating a program to give them an opportunity to express themselves through music. Your Song, Your Story has been successfully implemented at the Center for Grieving Children, Maine, Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, PS 307 in Brooklyn, New York, America’s Camp in Hinsdale Massachusetts, Point of Hope in Baltimore, Maryland and Camp Erin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kona, Hawaii and Toronto, Ontario.

Contact: Billy Libby 207-­‐415-­‐7960 billy.libby@gmail.com For more info. and media samples visit: www.yoursongyourstory.com