Music From The Heart

Arriving in East Harlem, New York City h 1980 with her two young sons, soon after a painful divorce, Roberta Guaspari doesn't know what she will do to support her family and move forward with her life. All she does know is that she has managed to hold on to the 50 violins she bought with her family's savings as part of her dream to be a music teacher. But as the future will prove, these 50 violins, along with Guaspari's unrelenting passion for music and teaching, are the basis for what will become her triumphantly successful program to teach the children of her community the power of music and put hundreds of them on the pith toward personal success. In The Music of My Heart, Roberta Guaspari tells the story of how her ultimate success and that of the children she taught does not come without years of hard work to overcome personal and community adversity. In 1993, Guaspari and her students hold a concert at Carnegie Hall and are accompanied by the world famous violinists Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern. East Harlem is only three miles form Carnegie Hall, but the work required to make this journey takes years. In The Music of My Heart, Guaspari takes the reader back to relive her own personal journey, how it becomes entwined with the lives of many of her students, and how together they fight for a future full of hope end music.

Music from the Heart follows Emile Benoit, a fiddler from French Newfoundland, through a rapidly changing musical milieu as he moves from a small rural community to international musical and folk festivals. Seeing himself as a representative of French Newfoundland, Benoit viewed his music as an expression of that identity. In Benoit's tunes one finds reference to the people, places, communities, roads, and natural landmarks that have framed his life. The compositions included represent a range of work that evokes his youthful experiences and follow his career as he leaves home, plays with other musicians, and presents his stories to audiences around the world. Quigley has based his study on years of observation of Benoit's compositional practices, his own experiences performing with Benoit, interviews, and analysis of the thoughts and conceptions of the artist himself.

Best-selling author takes you behind the scenes of your favorite songs.

Sent reluctantly to stay with her aunt so that her lustrous dark red hair and green gold-flecked eyes would not distract the attentions of her stepsister’s suitor, beautiful young Ilouka’s stagecoach is involved in a terrible accident in which two passengers are killed. One is Ilouka’s old lady’s maid and chaperone, Hannah. The other is Lucille Ganymede, a glamorous dancer and understudy to Madame Vestris, the famous performer who has enchanted the theatre world of Covent Garden. They are en route to perform at a private gentlemen’s party for the Earl of Lavenham at his glorious stately home, Lavenham Hall. Lucille’s Manager, Mr. D’Arcy, is distraught. This engagement is his last hope if he is to avoid destitution and, since she is a gifted singer and dancer herself, Ilouka nervously agrees to perform in Lucille’s place. But on arrival she takes an instant dislike to the Earl’s haughty demeanour and worse still she finds to her dismay that the behaviour of the guests at the ‘gentlemen’s party’ is far from gentlemanly. Dancing to the gypsy music that conjures in her heart visions of her Hungarian ancestors and sublime snow-capped mountains, she enthrals the audience who clap and clap her inspired dancing. And especially the handsome but aloof Earl. It is only when he rescues Ilouka from the drunken attentions of a certain Lord Marlowe, does she realise that she is utterly and irrevocably in love with the Earl.

A Song from the Heart describes the development of Lorna Lutz Heyge’s teaching philosophy—the philosophy that brought the original Kindermusik (1974-1994) from its beginnings as a German neighborhood music school program to its early days in Greensboro, North Carolina. Through a series of sound, intellectual, well-researched revisions and additions, Lorna Heyge created the holistic education program that is Musikgarten (1994-present)—holistic musically as well as educationally—for children ages birth through nine. Lorna Heyge’s teaching philosophy is concerned for the education of children from all walks of life. Her Pathway to Literacy, found in the Musikgarten curriculum, addresses all the aspects of learning, making it important to both parents and educators. Her work made a significant contribution to, and continues to influence, the field of music education.

For Abby Renard, the plan was supposed to be simple-join her brothers' band on the last leg of their summer tour and decide if she's finally ready for the limelight by becoming its fourth member. Of course, she never imagined stumbling onto the wrong tour bus at Rock Nation would accidentally land her in the bed of Jake Slater, the notorious womanizing lead singer of Runaway Train. When he mistakes her for one of his groupie's, Abby quickly lets him know she sure as hell isn't in his bed on purpose. Jake Slater never imagined the angel who fell into his bed would resist his charms by promptly kneeing him in the balls. Of course, the fact she seems like a prissy choir girl makes her anything but his type. So he is more than surprised when after betting Abby she wouldn't last a week on their tour bus, she is more than willing to prove him wrong. But as Jake's personal life begins to implode around him, he finds an unlikely ally in Abby. He's never met a woman he can talk to, joke with, or most importantly make music with. As the week starts to come to a close, neither Abby nor Jake is ready to let go. Can a sweetheart Country songstress and a bad boy of Rock N Roll actually have a future together?