Hub 2011 - artsawa (Archive)

Art Sawa, invites a class from the Lycee Libanais francophone Privee to PAPER CUT PEOPLE a mixed media workshop the next day just after the Vernissage of to STILL NATURE by ZENA ASSI Zena Assi: Born in 1974, Tripoli, Lebanon. Lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon. Assi’s sharply defined portraits of still impression elongated and often melancholic figures of young men and women call for attention alongside her cluttered cityscapes that are crammed with wires, television antennas and buildings stacked precariously on top of one another. Her canvasses are filled with interwoven lines set against bold fields of colour abstractions. Lines of varied width and texture swirl rhythmically beyond the picture plane thus echoing the sense of a dynamic energy. Zena Assi never makes preparatory sketches and instead begins by priming her canvases directly. The base layer is created using mixed media followed by adding different textures and materials; tissue paper, cloth, broken brushes to name a few. The result is contrasting layers of thick impasto. The artist often finishes off with a layer of oil colours which give her canvasses their peculiar, vigorous luminosity. PREVIEW VISUALS

LEARN TO DANCE SALSA…in a way that is simple and fun! Roshan will teach you basic salsa techniques and will break down fancy moves into fun to learn steps. The end result is to have fun on the dance floor and enjoy the dance while creating your own moves. Come alone or come with friends every Sunday night, from 7pm to 8pm for beginners’ level class, and from 8.00pm to 9.00pm for intermediate level class. Roshan was born and raised in Sri Lanka where he started his first step in the dancing world, Latin Ballroom (chach, Jive, Sambam, Rumba, and ballroom) dancing, Started with El Latino Dance school in Sri Lanka. Won First runners up in Jive 2001, in 2003 he relocated himself to Dubai where a various cultures, music and dance style influence his passion for dance. In this unique environment he learnt to dance Salsa with Familia de la salsa Dance school in Dubai from a well know and Dubai Salsa champion in 2002, Royston Cooray. Training with Royston has given him a great exposure to Dubai Salsa community and he was the Dubai Salsa Champion for 2005, 2006 and traveled to many congresses in Europe and Middle East, also performed in congresses and private events.

Passionate, dramatic, colorful and psychologically probing, Opera is a fascinating and ever changing art with universal appeal. Open to everyone who would like to begin to develop or widen their knowledge of Opera, this course will explore how Opera works on stage and trace its history during the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will focus on some of the best-loved works by Handel, Rameau, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and their contemporaries. Content: 1. Giuseppe Verdi. 2. Breaking the mould – Wagner’s earlier work. 3. French 19th century Opera. 4. Towards a new art form – Wagner’s later work. 5. Puccini and the art of verismo David Lesser studied the piano at the Royal College of Music in London and then the music composition at the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in Music and Open Studies Certificate Co-coordinator at the University of Warwick (1993-2007). His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe by Ensemble Aleph, Accroche Note, Linda Hirst, Ian Pace and others. As a performer he specializes in the music of the Twentieth century, vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world and British premieres. He is active as a composer, performer, lecturer and teacher.

Passionate, dramatic, colorful and psychologically probing, Opera is a fascinating and ever changing art with universal appeal. Open to everyone who would like to begin to develop or widen their knowledge of Opera, this course will explore how Opera works on stage and trace its history during the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will focus on some of the best-loved works by Handel, Rameau, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and their contemporaries. Content: 1. Introduction - conventions and the Operatic paradigm. 2. Opera in the 18th century. 3. Mozart and Italian Opera. 4. Mozart and German Opera. 5. The age of bel canto. David Lesser studied the piano at the Royal College of Music in London and then the music composition at the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in Music and Open Studies Certificate Co-coordinator at the University of Warwick (1993-2007). His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe by Ensemble Aleph, Accroche Note, Linda Hirst, Ian Pace and others. As a performer he specializes in the music of the Twentieth century, vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world and British premieres. He is active as a composer, performer, lecturer and teacher.

This course concentrates on the elements and the language of Arabic Calligraphy through the visual elements (line, volume, texture, color, shape). Moreover, this course also concentrates on the recognition of the different forms, Styles & Types of Arabic Calligraphy. In addition, they well learn the History of Arabic Calligraphy, Materials & Tools of the Calligraphers. Objectives To introduce the basic elements, principles and techniques of Arabic Calligraphy. Students` creativity. Developing the perceptional ability of the recognition of Letters and their Forms, Styles & Types. Developing Preparing students to deal positively with Letters in Each Style. Exercises Drawing by writing and lining, and making artistic shapes of Arabic Letters and aesthetic relations through geometrical and free forms, etc Making forms, masses, and models (if necessary) Saleh Al Shukairi is a member of the Omani Society for Fine Arts, where he is one of the founders and active participant of the Calligraphy Club and the Youth Studio. Saleh has exhibited internationally, notably in Germany, Pakistan, South Korea, Washington DC - USA and the UAE, and the 11th Asian Art Biennale in Bangladesh he received an "Honorary Award". He has participated in all calligraphy workshops in Oman since 1993, the largest painting in the world the Muscat Festival in 2000 and in Sharjah 2009 and in the Folk Festival organized by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, USA, in 2005. Saleh`s work ranges from time-honored classical religious calligraphy to contemporary abstract work that utilizes this traditional art form. He enjoys experimenting with materials, colors and techniques to produce his evocative pieces. He has produced more than One Hundred Sixty artworks since 90`s.

Right-angle weave, also called RAW, is one of the easiest stitches to learn. When two threads are used, it is often called cross weaving (because the threads cross in opposite directions through the beads), and it is the basic stitch used for Japanese-style beadwork where it is often referred to as “Hachinoji- ami” (because the stitches form the number 8 = hachi) or “Kousa-ami” (kousa = crossing) Right-angle weave is so-named because of the way the beads lay at right angles to one another. It is a very versatile weave and you can use any types or sizes of beads, as well as combinations of beads of different sizes and shapes to create different effects. Mix different colored beads to create a variety of objects - from jewelry necklaces, bracelets, rings and belts, to ties, coasters, handbags and decorative items. Requirement: Material will be provided for the first lesson only. Wendy J. Palmer has been an avid crafter since a very early age. While in Brazil on holiday, she applied herself to learning the techniques of jewelers making, and was surprised to be inundated with orders from fellow travelers, friends and family. Her jewelry was soon on sale in boutiques in France, mainly under the brazika label. This weaving course will be Wendy’s first return to active beading since her move to Dubai in 1994.

This is an inspiring workshop by a leading contemporary sculptor from the Middle East, and it is highly recommended for arts enthusiasts. For his awaited second solo SELF STORIES -BIRDS & I in Dubai with Art Sawa, Ahmed Askalany marks the beginning of the exhibition by holding a Sculpture workshop at the Art Sawa Al Quoz on the 22nd September. The focus will be on his technique and “savoir -faire “ The session is open to all those interested in innovative sculpting or simply those with a keen interest in contemporary art. Critics and art connoisseurs alike have already described Ahmed Askalany as one of the most unique and inimitable sculptors of his generation. Askalany’s subjects are simple human figures and animals inspired and representative of his native town, Nag Hammadi, in Upper Egypt. His work mostly retains an explicit connection with traditional materials and craft methods associated with the ancient cultures of Egypt. Askalany’s works are characterized by traditional aesthetic forms that place an emphasis on both structure and volume, but the volumes are distorted with a minimal head on a giant body. Askalany’s works possesses a sense of innocence alongside a state of isolation reflecting both frankness and candour. Nonetheless, the works retains a profound nature and sense of innocence. There is no specific formula that Askalany uses when creating his works of art, the final work often represents this by becoming humorous or naïve but always with a poetic sensitivity. This connection allows his work to become unique and unmistakable, yet, at the same time, does not stop him being thoroughly up to date. Ahmed Askalany’s latest exhibition is available to view at the Art Sawa Gallery in DIFC from the 21st September. PREVIEW VISUALS

Season 4: The chaos and war of 1939 - 1945 undermined the primacy of Paris as the world centre of art, a title that soon devolved to New York. Abstract Expressionism emerged as the dominant new style. Action painters led by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Willem De Kooning and Colour Field painters, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still, worked in the United States. In Europe, Neo-Expressionism focused on the isolation of man in the figurative style of Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. The era of Pop Art championed by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenburg employed contemporary iconic images in an anti-art approach. Finally Post-Modernism has superceded the supremacy of a particular style or interpretation, the triumph of style over substance. Content: Season 4 1. Abstract Expressionism 2. Neo Expressionism 3. Pop Art 4. Post Modernism in Art 5. Post Modernism in Architecture Shelley Young read for a postgraduate diploma in the History of Art and Architecture at East Anglia University`s acclaimed Sainsbury Centre, after completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Cape Town University. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She has a special interest in 20th Century Modern Art and she is currently researching the influence of Modernism on Contemporary Islamic Art. She is also a collector of Contemporary Gulf Art and Antique Oriental Art.

Kundalini yoga is the mother of all yogas. It is a tool to connect to our soul & its wisdom & discover the space of peace, love, non-attachment & non-judgment. You learn how to connect to your highest potential through higher awareness & feeling, the two polarities of our soul. Kundalini yoga uses mantras (chants), mudras (hand positions), bhandas (locks) & meditation & so it is much more than the sum of its parts. Transform yourself through this course of 14 classes; dive deep into your psyche, learn how to connect to higher consciousness & find the god within you. *Requirements: Yoga Mat Jessie Chami has been practicing yoga since 1987, starting at the Sivananda centre in London. After a career in advertising/marketing, she became a certified yoga teacher in 2006, and has taught privately tailoring her yoga sessions to suit her client’s needs & capabilities. Jessie has always believed in the power of yoga in transforming people’s lives on all levels be it physical, mental or spiritual. This conviction has taken a new dimension when she attended a Kundalini Yoga teacher training in Turkey this year. The power of this yoga technology became evident through her personal experience & transformation. She has vowed since, to transmit this powerful tool to as many people as possible to help them achieve higher states of peace, awareness & potentiality. In addition to kundalini yoga Jessie teaches, restorative yoga for menopausal women & yin yoga.

This introductory course offers a lively tour through the huge variety of the 20th century’s classical repertoire, including concert works, film scores, electronic pieces, improvisations, opera and ballet. Content: 1) Sibelius – the Tone Poems from Finlandia to Tapiola 2) Schönberg – Gurrelieder, Sechs kleine Klavierstücke Op.19 and the Violin Concerto Op. 36 3) Stravinsky’s ballet revolution - The Rite of Spring 4) Ralph Vaughan Williams and the English Arcadia– Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis 5) Naughty, but nice! - The music of Les six 6) Aaron Copland and the ‘Great American’ Symphony 7) Dmitri Shostakovich – “Most of my symphonies are tombstones” 8) Karlheinz Stockhausen – from Kreuzspiel to Licht: in search of ‘strange beauty’ 9) Philip Glass and Akhnaten Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour du loin – new opera for the new millennium. David Lesser studied the piano at the Royal College of Music in London and then the music composition at the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in Music and Open Studies Certificate Co-coordinator at the University of Warwick (1993-2007). His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe by Ensemble Aleph, Accroche Note, Linda Hirst, Ian Pace and others. As a performer he specializes in the music of the Twentieth century, vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world and British premieres. He is active as a composer, performer, lecturer and teacher.

The philosophy is that theatre can benefit to anyone, giving more confidence and ease in every day’s life. Starting from this idea, this session will be focused on learning the technique of acting and speaking. From a comedy sketch you like, we will learn how to give life to it onto the stage, and make a real show. Content: 1- Collective Exercises for the group’s cohesion: voice, body, senses 2- From reciting to acting: work on each text you have chosen Objectives: 1- Having at least one text you are able to perform in public 2- Managing stress and gaining in confidence 3- Learning to listen to the others Mathilde Ahmed Sarrot studied acting at the school Les Enfants Terribles in Paris. She played in a range of films, shorts and gave her voice to dubbing. But this is on stage; through a number of plays she was involved in that she found the most pleasure to act. She also worked in the administration of Theatre 71 in Paris, in the heart of the contemporary living arts scene. Passionate for theatre and object theatre, she is today willing to transmit her passion and the pleasure she has as an actor as well as a spectator.

We will build handmade puppets using collage. Everyone will have its own character, and able to bring it back home at the end. Objectives: 1- Develop creativity by giving its own expression to each puppet 2- Invent a story from the puppet created 3- Start to learn how to use it and give life to it. Mathilde Ahmed Sarrot studied acting at the school Les Enfants Terribles in Paris. She played in a range of films, shorts and gave her voice to dubbing. But this is on stage; through a number of plays she was involved in that she found the most pleasure to act. She also worked in the administration of Theatre 71 in Paris, in the heart of the contemporary living arts scene. Passionate for theatre and object theatre, she is today willing to transmit her passion and the pleasure she has as an actor as well as a spectator.

Season 3: After the Great War in Europe, the era of Surrealism emerged out of Cubism, Freud and communist philosophy. Led by Andre Breton, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali, it aimed to fuse the conscious with the unconscious to create a ` super-reality`. Art Deco and Modernism evolved out of the Depression in the United States and post-First World War Europe, in the 20`s and 30`s as Frank Lloyd Wright, Corbusier and Bauhaus embraced new materials and experimental architecture. The era ended with the Spanish Civil War and Picasso`s monochrome masterpiece, `Guernica`. In Germany, with the rise of National Socialism, these styles of art were described as `degenerate`. Content: Season 3 1. Dada and Abstraction 2. Surrealism 3. Art Deco and Modernism in Architecture 4. Bauhaus 5. New Realism and Socialist Realism Shelley Young read for a postgraduate diploma in the History of Art and Architecture at East Anglia University`s acclaimed Sainsbury Centre, after completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Cape Town University. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She has a special interest in 20th Century Modern Art and she is currently researching the influence of Modernism on Contemporary Islamic Art. She is also a collector of Contemporary Gulf Art and Antique Oriental Art.

Aerial Silk (Tissues) is a mesmerizing and rarely seen acrobatic art form of modern Circus and a delicate display of artist’s acrobatic skills. Aerial Silk Level 1 Beginner: Climbing, single and double foot locks, and elegant poses. Aerial Silk Level 2 Intermediate: Routine development incorporating more complex loose poses and simple drops Aerial Silk Level 3 Advanced: Refinement of skills and routine development incorporating advanced wraps, trick combinations, and drops Valeria Baigacheva is a skilled international artistic performer who specializes in Circus art forms such as Aerial Silk, Lira, Swinging Sky, Acro-balance, Unicycle, Juggling, and Stilts. Her artistic career started at an early age back in Russia performing with the circus troupe as an Acrobat Contortionist. She has been trained in Youth Circus, Moscow Dinamo Gymnastic center, Moscow Aerial Circus, Ukraine Mria Aerial Circus.

We will build handmade puppets using collage. Everyone will have its own character, and able to bring it back home at the end. Objectives: Develop creativity by giving its own expression to each puppet Invent a story from the puppet created Start to learn how to use it and give life to it. Mathilde Ahmed Sarrot studied acting at the school Les Enfants Terribles in Paris. She played in a range of films, shorts and gave her voice to dubbing. But this is on stage; through a number of plays she was involved in that she found the most pleasure to act. She also worked in the administration of Theatre 71 in Paris, in the heart of the contemporary living arts scene. Passionate for theatre and object theatre, she is today willing to transmit her passion and the pleasure she has as an actor as well as a spectator.

WORKSHOP: KUNDALINI YOGA (Non-profit for Palestinian Children Relief Fund)

Feel like giving while receiving? Join us for a fundraising event for the ‘PCRF’ the Palestinian Children Relief Fund, is a non-political, non-profit, a charity which helps injured Palestinian children get treatment around the world. We will open our hearts by doing a session of Kundalini yoga & send our love to all the children that need it. Get inspired! Get moving! Get giving! Kundalini yoga is the mother of all yoga practices. It is a tool to connect to our soul & its wisdom & discover the space of peace, love, non-attachment & non-judgment. You learn how to connect to your highest potential through higher awareness & feeling, the two polarities of our soul. Kundalini yoga uses mantras (chants), mudras (hand positions), bhandas (locks) & meditation & so it is much more than the sum of its parts. Class structure: Tuning in (chanting a mantra) A warm up A kriya which is a set of Asanas (yoga positions) Meditation at the end of the set The closing chant. Jessie Chami has been practicing yoga since 1987, starting at the Sivananda centre in London. After a career in advertising/marketing, she became a certified yoga teacher in 2006, and has taught privately tailoring her yoga sessions to suit her client’s needs & capabilities. Jessie has always believed in the power of yoga in transforming people’s lives on all levels be it physical, mental or spiritual. This conviction has taken a new dimension when she attended a Kundalini Yoga teacher training in Turkey this year. The power of this yoga technology became evident through her personal experience & transformation. She has vowed since, to transmit this powerful tool to as many people as possible to help them achieve higher states of peace, awareness & potentiality. In addition to kundalini yoga Jessie teaches, restorative yoga for menopausal women & yin yoga.

The purpose of this course is to develop an appreciation of film through the study of the fundamentals and aesthetics of this medium. You will learn the ABC’s of film language, which will allow you to better, understand and analyze movies by deciphering their symbolic and inferred meanings. The course will cover all the basic elements of film including cinematography, mise en scene, montage, sound, and narrative structure. The lectures will include scenes from various film classics, which have shaped the history of cinema. This course will help you to watch movies more critically, to observe and appreciate cinematic subtleties, and develop a more profound appreciation of the art of the film. Content: 1. Content and form 2. Light & shadow 3. Colour and lenses 4. Mise En scene 5. Movement 6. Montage 7. Sound 8. Drama 9. Narrative structure 10.Genre & myth Sumaya Kubeisy studied Communication Arts at the Lebanese American University and received her Masters in Film Production at Boston University. She was later an instructor of Television and Film at the Lebanese American University in Beirut for 4 years. She worked in television production with various TV stations for over ten years as a director and producer and headed the production department at Future Television in Lebanon from 1995- 1999, when she left the professional life to become a full time mother. Most recently, she worked with Dubai TV as a consultant to the team responsible for restructuring and modernizing the channel, and is currently a part time professor of television AUD.

WORKSHOP: ARTISTIC ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY (MORNING)

WORKSHOP: ARTISTIC ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY (EVENING)

Passionate, dramatic, colorful and psychologically probing, Opera is a fascinating and ever changing art with universal appeal. Open to everyone who would like to begin to develop or widen their knowledge of Opera, this course will explore how Opera works on stage and trace its history during the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will focus on some of the best-loved works by Handel, Rameau, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and their contemporaries. Content: 1. Introduction - conventions and the Operatic paradigm. 2. Opera in the 18th century. 3. Mozart and Italian Opera. 4. Mozart and German Opera. 5. The age of bel canto. 6. Giuseppe Verdi. 7. Breaking the mould – Wagner’s earlier work. 8. French 19th century Opera. 9. Towards a new art form – Wagner’s later work. 10. Puccini and the art of verismo David Lesser studied the piano at the Royal College of Music in London and then the music composition at the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in Music and Open Studies Certificate Co-coordinator at the University of Warwick (1993-2007). His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe by Ensemble Aleph, Accroche Note, Linda Hirst, Ian Pace and others. As a performer he specializes in the music of the Twentieth century, vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world and British premieres. He is active as a composer, performer, lecturer and teacher.

Season 1: Realism, the progressive movement in art and literature sought to depict the everyday social truths of the new industrial age. It continued to influence new approaches to the depiction of reality in the 20th Century. The Salon des Refusee in 1863 put European Art on an unprecedented path to new ways of seeing in the years that followed. In this course we will explore the influence of industrialization, urbanization and political change that so influenced the Symbolists, Impressionists and Post Impressionists. The art that they produced was to shape everything that followed. Content: Season 1 1. Realism and French Impressionism 2. Neo-impressionism and Symbolism 3. Post Impressionism and Vincent Van Gogh 4. Post Impressionism and Paul Gauguin 5. Post Impressionism and Paul Cezanne Shelley Young read for a postgraduate diploma in the History of Art and Architecture at East Anglia University`s acclaimed Sainsbury Centre, after completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Cape Town University. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She has a special interest in 20th Century Modern Art and she is currently researching the influence of Modernism on Contemporary Islamic Art. She is also a collector of Contemporary Gulf Art and Antique Oriental Art.

Season 2: With the emergence of Secession and Art Nouveau, art movements continued to break away from the traditions of the official academies. Avant-garde exhibitions in Vienna by Gustav Klimt and the French Fauve movement led by Henri Matisse caused great controversy, as did Expression in Northern Europe. Pablo Picasso played such an important part in the development of modern art with ‘ Les Demoiselles d‘Avignon ‘ and the revolutionary art movement, Cubism. The chaos of World War 1 and the Russian Revolution ended this period with the further shattering of conventional ideas in painting and sculpture. Content: Season 2 1. Art Nouveau and Secession 2. Fauvism and Matisse 3. Expressionism 4. Early Picasso and “Les Demoiselles d‘Avignon” 5. Cubism Shelley Young read for a postgraduate diploma in the History of Art and Architecture at East Anglia University`s acclaimed Sainsbury Centre, after completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Cape Town University. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She has a special interest in 20th Century Modern Art and she is currently researching the influence of Modernism on Contemporary Islamic Art. She is also a collector of Contemporary Gulf Art and Antique Oriental Art.

"Every time I try to tell you, all the words just come out wrong. So I have to say I love you in a song" - Jim Croce. We all have a song in our hearts - but how to put it down on paper? Composers are revered as genius - but the act of composing simple tunes is not as difficult as it sometimes seems. Join Wendy Palmer for a 6 weeks practical course and learn the basic chordial approach to writing tunes to words of your own choosing. Content Scanning poetry into musical rhythm; elements of melodic writing; practical chord progressions, song forms and formulae; computer notation programme. After 6 weeks you should be able to write simple tunes to words of your choosing, with accompaniment by guitar (or other chordial instrument) Wendy J. Palmer is already a well-known figure on the Dubai Classical Music scene. British, South African born, she counts herself privileged to have lived and worked in various countries around the world as performer, teacher, composer/arranger and conductor. Since her arrival in Dubai six years ago, she has participated fully in local musical activities - among others, singing with (and sometimes conducting) the Dubai Singers; performing with the Dubai Classical Guitar Orchestra; moderating the Dubai Classical Music yahoo notification group. 2010 sees Wendy’s return to active music teaching after a failed experiment in retirement.

Is there an artist in you? Based on chromatology and basic knowledge of materials, we will explore various painting methods such as acrylic, crayon, pencil, sand, textile, collage, lift off etc. I am also working with painting techniques such as brush, spatula, sponge and finger painting. We will set the limits for specific exercises after which media and methods will be tested in practice. Objectives Insight into: mixing Color and abstraction painting Vegetable prints on canvas Collage/ technique: portrait painting Textile Lift off Content: Collectively: Theory Chromatology - Analysis of paint media and painting techniques - Building of a painting Individual Practice Shefali Ranthe painted for years and has gradually gained a solid understanding of what works and what does not. She will strive to give the students individual instructions and make sure that everybody gets the most out of the course.

Approximately 75% of students listen to music as they study. How does this affect learning? Music is an art form which deals with the representation of emotion through the medium of sound. It can have a physical effect on us because it is closely linked with emotion, perhaps even more so than the abstract nature of words. The number one reason people listen to music is to moderate their emotional state. In a very real sense, music connects us with our inner selves. Numerous studies leave us in no doubt that music can affect our mood state and stress levels. In fact, a great deal of present research involves the use of music in medical situations to assist recovery rates and induce a desired physiology (usually a lowering) of heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. The use of music as an element in medical intervention is an example of creative connection between subject areas. We will explore characteristics of music and personality that effect task performance. Michael Griffin is an internationally recognized educator, author and pianist. In Australia he was awarded the Education and Arts Ministers’ Prize in 2006 and nominated for a National Teaching Excellence award in 2005. Michael won many significant national and state prizes as a choral and jazz ensemble conductor –including Australia’s premier choral prize, before moving to Dubai with his wife, Rae, where they presently reside. As an international conference presenter, clinician and speaker Michael is in high demand working in up to 20 countries in 2010, and his books on music and learning continue to sell in several countries. Additionally, as a writer he has had a number of professional articles published in specialist magazines in Australia, the UK and the Middle East, including for peak music education body ISME and Rheingold, UK. Trained as a classical pianist, Michael is known for stylistic versatility and recent performances include a residency at Dubai’s iconic Burj al Arab. Michael is most passionate about engaging young people in the wonders of learning.