LEARNING + GROWING THROUGH MUSIC
In 2015, Opera Steamboat began providing vocal workshops for special needs clients and their counselors in partnership with Horizons Specialized Services and the Yampa Valley Autism Program. Programs are also provided for community members living with Parkinson’s disease.
Led by Dr. Dan Comstock, Director at the Center for Attitudinal Healing and the Arts, these workshops focus on active, participatory learning.
Participants learn the fundamentals of speech, singing, rhythm, and movement.
They also gain a sense of body awareness, i.e., how to feel and reproduce a steady beat. Combining beat and rhythm with open, flowing vocal production, participants perform with confidence through poetry and song.
Ensemble performance also enhances powers of concentration; the process of holding one’s part while other singers are executing their individual parts.
Participants gain not only skill in vocal performance, but also increased self- confidence, mindfulness and competence in day-to-day activities. Regardless of verbal ability, participants learn to sing courageously over the course of the sessions and grow in their ability to securely mimic rhythms while participating in an ensemble.
Through grant funding from the Rocky Mountain Health Foundation, Opera Steamboat has been able to continue our vocal workshop program in the community.
With our largest numbers to-date, Opera Steamboat held 11 workshop sessions with over 116 clients and caregivers from the Yampa Valley Autism Program, the Parkinson’s Support Group, Northwest Colorado Center for Independence, as well as both Steamboat and Craig’s Horizon’s communities this year.