Adjunct Professor of Music Therapy Thomas Sweitzer ’94, ’10 (master’s certificate in music therapy), several alumni, and students led the Same Sky Project performance Nov. 12, 2015, at the national conference for the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA).
The Same Sky Project is based at Sweitzer’s Middleburg, Virginia music therapy practice, A Place to Be. The project’s 40-minute show is written by and performed by young people living with challenges like autism, ADD, anxiety, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, depression, and other medical/life issues, with a goal of teaching people to see beyond diagnosis, beyond labels, and into human beings.
Sweitzer said the 12 young performers, aged 13 to 22 years old, loved performing at the conference. “They felt they were rock stars. They are all clients of music therapy and love sharing their stories.” The Same Sky Project, which began five years ago, has performed for more than 25,000 people and is set to be a keynote address at the NIH National Conference in 2016.
The project is special and important, Sweitzer said, because “each person gets to have their voice heard and through the process forms a family.”
Learn more about the project, by checking out this video: