Music and Mindfulness will cater to music lovers wishing to deepen their concert experience, and mindfulness practitioners who wish to view their practice from a new, captivating focal point, blending traditional concert with guided meditation.
Violinist Carson Marshall and other NWS musicians have invited guest speaker Valerie York-Zimmerman, founder of Miami mindfulness, to focus on the concept of deep listening. Guiding the audience first in a centering meditation, and through a series of sonic meditations including works by Bach, Beethoven, Pauline Oliveros and others. After each piece there will be a period of inquiry, where the audience can share their experience.
Music and Mindfulness hopes to examine and challenge our perceptions of dissonance, resolution, and provide strategies to cope with volatile emotions or situations in our lives.
Solo Spotlight: Music and Mindfulness is an NWS BLUE project. Fellow-driven projects are sponsored in part by the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation.
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Carson Marshall, Violin
Photo by Natalie Gaynor
First-year Violin Fellow Carson Marshall aims to inspire audiences with generous and passionate performances in both formal and unconventional concert settings. Originally from western Massachusetts, he has performed on the PBS radio showFrom the Topand is a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke young artist award.
Mr. Marshall has attended the Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West, where he studied with Paul Kantor, Alex Kerr, Kathleen Winkler, Jorja Fleezanis and Glenn Dicterow. In 2017 he served as Co-Concertmaster of the National Repertory Orchestra, performing Richard Strauss’Ein Heldenlebenand Ernest Chausson’sPoeme.
Mr. Marshall attended Rice University in Houston, where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, studying with Paul Kantor. Mr. Marshall was also a core member of the Kinetic ensemble, The Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, and served as a violin coach for the Houston Youth Symphony.
When not performing or practicing, Mr. Marshall prefers to be outside and is an avid fly-fisherman, rock climber and mushroom forager.
Valerie York-Zimmerman, meditation leader
Valerie York-Zimmerman has practiced mindfulness meditation since 1988 and is a CFM Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher. The designation was awarded by the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society founded by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is a member of the Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute at the University of California-San Diego and currently teaches the MBSR Program for adults as well as the MBSR Practicum in Miami. In 1998 Valerie founded Miami Mindfulness where she began teaching the 8-week MBSR Program and other mindfulness-based programs in the South Miami medical offices of her husband Leonard Zimmerman, M.D. In 2011 Valerie and Dr. Zimmerman founded Mindful Kids Miami where she served as the Executive Director and Senior Teacher/Trainer for five years after the 501(c)(3) non-profit was launched.
