Prospective Music Therapist
Lauren Cushman
Music Biography
Having always been interested in music, I began taking piano lessons at the age of five and continued to study both privately and in group lessons until the age of thirteen. When I was eleven years old, my music teacher at St. Charles School suggested I try out for the Kettering Children's Choir. I decided to take her advice and was accepted. I began taking voice lessons at the age of fourteen with Karen Kelley out of Singer Studio. After studying with Karen for two years, I took a break from voice lessons to concentrate more on dancing and theater. I started voice lessons again during my senior year in high school; I studied with Elizabeth Kusner, a fourth-year Music Education Major at Wright State University. As part of Archbishop Alter High School's class of 2004, I participated heavily in the musical theater program. I was always a principle dancer in Alter's musicals and also had roles such as a female "Andi Lee" in 42nd Street and "Krumholz" in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. After graduating from Alter, I returned in the spring of 2005 to choreograph the musical Godspell under the direction of Trace Crawford. In the spring of 2006 I choreographed Seussical: the Musical under the direction of Bryan Wallingford. For the 2004-2005 school year at University of Dayton, I studied voice with Eleanor McClellan. Upon Professor McClellan's leaving of the university, I was assigned Alison Acord as my voice teacher for the 2005-2006 school year. In April of 2006, I participated at the NATS competition held at Ashland University. During the second semester of the 2005-2006 school year, I participated in a practicum at Bethany Lutheran Village in which I worked alongside fellow Music Therapy students with residents afflicted with Alzheimer's and dementia.
I have always had interests in both psychology and music. So, when I heard about Music Therapy, I began to consider it as my future career. It was not until July of 2003 that I was absolutely certain that Music Therapy was the field for me. I was asked to sing at the wedding of a family friend. Being a Catholic wedding, I sang "Ave Maria" during part of the ceremony. The bride's grandmother, a sufferer of Parkinson's Disease, had not spoken and had shown little movement for years. However, when the grandmother heard me singing her favorite song, "Ave Maria," she lifted her head and attempted to sing along. When I learned of this occurrence, I truly realized the exceptional power of music. I believe that music is extremely therapeutic and multifaceted. Music can reach out to people in ways that most other interactions cannot.
In the future, I would love to do something with music and movement. I have been a dancer for the majority of my life, and the thing I love most about dancing is the feeling of connecting with the music. By moving with music, I believe that one can feel and express the emotions that music can evoke and unleash in a powerful way. Whether the movement is something as simple as swaying to the beat or is as complicated as learning a dance, movement can bring music to an entirely different level. I teach tap at a dance studio called Dance Dimensions to a group of high school girls. My experiences in teaching adolescents at Dance Dimensions and Alter have sparked my interest in potentially working with this group in a Music Therapy setting.
Links
University of Dayton Music Department