Voices for Voices®

When All Eyes Close, the Music Speaks Louder Than Disabilities | Episode 201

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 201

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When All Eyes Close, the Music Speaks Louder Than Disabilities | Episode 201

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The magic happens when you close your eyes at a concert and simply listen—suddenly, disabilities vanish and all that remains is beautiful music. Orchestra Director Dr. Isaacson takes us behind the scenes of a groundbreaking collaboration between Kutztown University Orchestra and Hearts for Music, where traditional instruments merged with adaptive tablet technology to create something extraordinary.

Music serves as what Dr. Isaacson calls "an amplifier for the human experience," transforming ordinary moments into something profound. Through vivid examples like playing royal wedding footage first without sound, then with majestic organ music, he demonstrates how music fundamentally changes our perception of events. This power extends far beyond entertainment—it creates connections across every conceivable divide in society.

The conversation reveals fascinating insights into how an Orchestra Director functions as both facilitator and coach, especially when integrating performers with diverse abilities. We learn about the technical challenges of accommodating transposing instruments with tablet technology, and how these obstacles were overcome through collaboration and flexibility. For Dr. Isaacson, whose son is autistic, this work carries deeply personal significance, opening his eyes to societal expectations and limitations that often go unquestioned.

What emerges most powerfully is the transformative nature of music as a vocation rather than just a profession. When musicians of all abilities come together with a shared purpose, something magical happens—bonds form, perspectives shift, and both performers and audience members leave forever changed. As Kitrael Chin from Hearts for Music demonstrated with his work in Singapore, music truly is the universal language that resonates across all cultural and neurological differences.

Join us for this inspiring conversation that will change how you think about music, ability, and human connection. Subscribe to Voices for Voices and help us continue sharing stories that break down barriers through the unifying power of the arts.

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Thank you for joining us today. I am founder and executive director of Voices for Voices and your host, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for all your support. We're reaching 50 countries, 550 cities here in the States and abroad, and we couldn't do this without your support.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So if you could give us a big thumbs up, if you could subscribe, we could really appreciate that, and we're gonna get started with our guest for today very grateful to have been part of a once-in-a-lifetime performance, for you know, my good friend, ketrel Chen, with Hearts for Music, came to Kutztown University here in Pennsylvania and were embedded within the orchestra and it was just incredible to be part of that. And so what we thought we'd do is we were able to get on a schedule kind of last minute is to have a chat with the orchestra director, dr Isaacson, talk about his passion, how he got started with his profession and all the way into how it's impacting and making a difference in lives, whether we can see it or, like some with Hearts for Music, they have an internal challenge. That's going on.

Dr. Isaacson:

So, dr Isaacson thank you for joining us. I'm glad to be here. It really was a wonderful concert last night and a first of its kind. Hopefully there'll be more.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And thank you for the opportunity I know it's a big something new and to be able to coordinate on many different levels.

Dr. Isaacson:

I mean it's really extraordinary, I think, what Kitrel has brought forward, because through technology and the tablets and so he's really made music more accessible to so many more individuals that otherwise would be left out of the picture, and I think it's a really exciting time for the development of music, I think in educational aspects and just the sheer joy of collaboration which touches all of our lives and enriches us in many ways, touches all of our lives and enriches us in many ways. I think when you asked me about inspiration and about music in general, I think one of the easiest ways to answer that question for me is really through the lens of non-music majors and people who aren't really around music in the way that I am or you are, orchetrell is, and the musicians we worked with last night and I was thinking and I come at this because occasionally I teach a class, for it's a general music class and so it's the general population there are many students in there that have never had any experience even playing music.

Dr. Isaacson:

But of course it's a part of their lives in ways they don't even realize. So I always tell them music is really like an amplifier for the human experience in many ways. And then we start a discussion and I start pointing out well, where do you hear music? And then we start listing the places. That happens in the grocery store, in Golden Bear Stadium, in movies, in ceremonies. What would a wedding be without music? You know. So I mean, it's all pervasive in our entire culture and it serves so many different needs and elevates the experience needs and elevates the experience Occasionally.

Dr. Isaacson:

What I'll do is I know this sounds kind of I don't know stilted, but I'll go and I'll play a little video clip of William and Kate's wedding in London. But what I'll do and it's at Westminster Abbey and it's incredibly beautiful and there's so much pageantry, everyone's dressed to the nines and they even brought trees into the sanctuary. I mean it's ridiculous and there's a full orchestra and men and boys choir in there. But what I do is I play the opening when Kate is lining up with a long trail and the dress and she's standing there with her father and the organ introduction comes into Perry's. I Was Glad, but I play with no sound, and so you see people just walking in and it's like something's really missing.

Dr. Isaacson:

So then we go back, I put the sound on and that organ just comes in and fills the space and it and it changes everything. So the music and the sound changes everything in our lives.

Justin Alan Hayes:

It is therapeutic, it can be relaxing, it can be challenging, and so it fosters all kinds of, I think, growth for us as humans really it does, and I have mental challenges myself and music is very therapeutic and I think, while there is, there's an aspect of getting close to perfection in a performance, but really we're just looking at ourselves and how we say, oh, how good are we compared to this person or this artist?

Justin Alan Hayes:

And at the end of the day, it's really we're just individuals and playing. So, whether it's the most complex piece or whether it's the most basic, I've found that it's very therapeutic and one of the reasons to come five hours and to be a part of it, not just for a trial at the university and be able to speak with you, but then I'm also doing it for myself and my therapy and my therapist. We talk about that often and finding ways to lower stress and while learning music, it could be considerably difficult at the beginning, learning all the notes. It's just incredible when you bring people from all walks of life to together and and they're just playing the the best they can and to bring that together.

Dr. Isaacson:

So, as a orchestra director, how do you, how do you manage that with the different instruments and yeah, yeah, I can talk about that in a general way and then I can kind of, if you want, zero in on how it worked for integrating parts for music. I think that would be interesting to everyone. Yeah, so you know, in a general way, directing orchestra is kind of like being a coach in some ways, many ways. So you know the students and the situations that I've been a part of. You know people that come to play an orchestra usually come with quite a bit of experience and training in order to do that. So, and essentially what I do is I like to say in my conducting classes, I'm a facilitator. Hopefully I'm a facilitator, not someone who's creating problems. So you know, what I do is I show time, I show rhythm, I coach musical nuance and phrasing dynamics, loud and soft, and then I try to fix problems, because anytime you have 50, 60, 70 people, whatever it is on stage, there's going to be issues. It doesn't matter how good you are at what the training is, and so I think the conductor's role is to bring all of that together in a cohesive message. Where it's together and the intent of the composer and the music is really clear, that message gets across to the footlights, and so there's a whole process for that, and I think part of what's engaging is that that process is a growth process for me too, because I feel like I have kind of, along the way, transformed how I do things and I've learned from them, so there's a reciprocal nature back and forth. It's really, I think, engaging, and that's why it never gets tiring, because there's always new problems. There's always a different piece, a new piece, and for me, particularly in education, every four years I've got students cycling out so I've got a new batch coming in that I've got to train and work with and get them to grow, because they're going to be the next music educators or go on to grad school and pursue performing, whatever it is they may be doing.

Dr. Isaacson:

That onus is on me to get them ready in that sense, and I think that's one of the great things about it With Hearts for Music, when we go down that same road of preparation. They've already been rehearsing, they know the music, but what they're adjusting to, I think, is how we keep the orchestra together in time, versus what Cattrall was doing on the keyboard, because he is so inspirational and full of so much energy and he has a certain way of directing. However, with his hands full he can't. He's got both hands going because he's playing the melody in the right hand, some of the harmony in here in the left hand, so his hands are tied down, so he doesn't have the ability to project in real time necessarily what the tempo is or what the broader ensemble needs to start and or finish, because you can only direct so much by gesture, head and all of that.

Dr. Isaacson:

And when you have all those people on stage and the distance, that's where I come in, because I have to interpret what he was doing at the keyboard and kind of convey that in real time to the players behind and around inside. So, and in relation to the how it fits with the orchestra, there are instruments that transpose. So there are some instruments that play a concert pitch and there are French horns that are in the key of F, you have trumpets and clarinets that are in the key of Bb. So we actually had to get some parts together so that they had at least some loose guidelines about what notes to play, because where the technology interacts with those people that are in the front in that first circle, they're essentially, as I understand it, touching the tablet and that outlines a G chord or a C chord or A flat, whatever it may be, and so that's in real time at Concert Pitch.

Dr. Isaacson:

They can do that, but the instruments themselves have to know what key it's in, and so we had a little bit of a touch and go in one moment because he was going to play Amazing Grace, I think in G and it was actually in F. But we got that worked out and that's part of what the rehearsal was. That's why we put it together in that way, and then it's mixed through the sound system in the auditorium and he's been aious, I think, about how to make that system compact and user friendly. I was so. For me, it was so inspiring to look around as I was directing, because I saw all of these individuals with different mediums in front of my tablet. Some had real instruments and they were all playing together and experiencing the joy, were all playing together and experiencing the joy of making music together. And that's the one thing, too, that I didn't mention as a director is that collaborative element is really edifying in the end.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, it's really, as Kutrell mentioned at the beginning, you close your eyes and just listen and you can't tell if a person has a disability or not. It's the show, the voice and similar and a little bit of ways of, okay, we're not facing, we can't see the individuals. We're gonna hopefully that they're legit and they're actually doing it and it's not coached and that where they're turning around, based off of the sound and to be able to have an audience at a performance, like, like last night, a concert I I think that's always a real, uh, interesting way to look at things and I think it ties to your, your wedding example, where you had the volume turn all the way down and you watch it and then the volumes up. It's like, okay, yeah, this makes sense. And then I think it's a little bit like turning the chair when everybody closes their eyes. They listen to a part of a song or a whole song and then they open their eyes. They listen to a part of a song or a whole song and then they open their eyes and they actually see visually who is playing that, and I think that that part is.

Justin Alan Hayes:

It's just so neat to Because I'm always a learner too as well and to look at things in a new perspective. I think that's helpful to the general population, always a learning to do it as well. And to look at things in a new perspective. I think that's helpful to the general population who may not have the experience, and that you have, and Katrell and the orchestra, both orchestra members, that everybody's coming with their unique sets of abilities and you're bringing it all together. So when you say, when you practice, do practice as a full orchestra or do you sometimes break it up or does somebody help?

Dr. Isaacson:

with that. So we generally practice the full orchestra two times a week and so, but the students themselves do have sectionals occasionally when they get fitted in, because in the schedule we're kind of underserved, I think, in the rehearsal time for what we do, because we give four concerts a year, a different full repertoire plus a holiday concert we collaborate with and we have a concerto competition. So it's a busy, busy structure for the university orchestra in this type of setting, and so every rehearsal I feel like we're under the gun. This concert's over and already we've got a new set of repertoire. Plus we're playing for graduation this year. So I've gotta get that music in, and the Gershwin was a rental so I gotta send that out and I've gotta, and so the week after next we start again and we've got to learn all that stuff before the end of the year. So because of that I have to be efficient. So the most efficient way to do is have everyone at once doing it, and then you know I would say it's a little bit. It's a little bit like if you, if you and I, were having to build something or say like create a sculpture out of a block of stone, those first initial cuts are kind of broad and then what happens is you refine it over time and refine it over time until it is what it is for the concert. So because obviously if they're sight reading and they're looking at pieces for the first time, it's not going to sound performance ready. So we go through that process every time and we get better at it, we get quicker at it and we come with more experience as we go and throughout the year. So that's part of the exciting part.

Dr. Isaacson:

I think one of the things I want to circle back on is what you were saying about the concert last night and people closing their eyes and then opening, like what Katrell says in the performance, and then realizing who's on stage wall. In our society that is eroding and it's been particularly moving for me because my son is autistic. So for me I come at this with some experience and so when you have a family member who is neurodiverse or and that person has to fit into the mold of society, your eyes are open to a lot of things they were not otherwise open to. And I feel like that concert last night shows that in a really big light, because people come up there and they see what's happening. They not only realize what's possible but I think, in the back of their minds they realize that perhaps they're carrying along, carrying on and holding on to some expectations and some viewpoints that maybe they can let go as a result of that.

Dr. Isaacson:

So I also feel very strongly about that, because we have to intersect with all people, and all people speak the language of music. It doesn't matter what it is. We're hardwired for that and that's why music is also so powerful. It cuts across every divide in society you can put down and it cuts right like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't matter, and that's one of the things I love about it too, and I guess that's why music the things that I love about it too, and I guess that's why music has been a lifelong pursuit for me in that way.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, and Gitchell also mentioned he's a native from Singapore and he was back visiting and he was at an assisted living facility and he was at an assisted living facility and he's trying to teach them how to work the tablet and there was the just the whole understanding in a different language and what's going on and not really relating to it, because the culture and norms in Singapore were different, very different, and when, as Ketrell mentioned, once you play the Star Spangled Banner, that like perked up or they heard it on the Olympics sometime, some words, some way that resonated with them and I think that's a perfect example of that and being able to cut across whatever beliefs somebody has and say, okay, I recognize this.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Now whether they like it or not, that's a different topic, but the fact that they can recognize that is just, I think, just shows how we're just connected as humans, whether you're a human Singapore or Brazil or here in Pennsylvania, and it's just a. It's just amazing to just to hear those stories and it inspires me and helps me feel. What I do with Voices for Voices and at times when I can, with Contrell's group, it's just being able to take part and be a participant, that I don't always have to be a leader, I don't always have to be a host or doing this, speaking, engagement or doing that, and just to be immersed and just be another one of the 70, 80, whatever that number is was just very cathartic and very just eye-opening, and so I'd say I'm a little bit selfish.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I did a lot for me last night as well as and I took the trail like um, I got the major depression and I got the general anxiety, you got the bipolar and low spectrum autism, and the crazy part about that for me, with the lights and the sounds, is being at the concert and the lights and the sound, and you were comfortable and I was comfortable.

Dr. Isaacson:

Isn't that incredible?

Justin Alan Hayes:

And I think it's that focus that I'm able to, at that very moment, just be focused in what I'm doing, kind of like a surgeon. When they go into surgery that they have certain depending on the surgery, they have certain protocols that they go through. I think that you want them to be focused and you don't want their mind to kind of be wandering and my therapist has mentioned to me that that's one of the one of the superpowers is to be able to, you know, at times being all over the place and thinking about this and doing that, but when it comes down to it, if there's something or working on, like right now, I'm just focused in on the conversation. I don't know what else is going on.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I mean the world's kind of doing its thing, but being right here in the moment, I think, is another piece to understand and to your point about having a family member with autism to society, I think no matter what. If they haven't experienced it themselves, they're not gonna understand, as much as not a negative.

Justin Alan Hayes:

They say like oh well, you're wrong, we're right, it's just more okay, these are the experiences that I have, and you have, these experiences and let's let's come come together, as opposed to trying to put people in kind of silos and say, okay, well, you can't do this, so we're going to put you over here, where it's like hey, last night it looks like the the inspiration. So of the? Uh, the 300 that were in the auditorium, uh, the 300 that were in the auditorium, there's probably at least one person that was inspired. And if they weren't inspired, themselves.

Justin Alan Hayes:

They were inspired to talk to a family member, a loved one a spouse, and I think that's the big takeaway of how we talk about. We want to help people. We talk about we want to help people across all divides and that's very, very, very hopeful because we don't know we know in the moment what actually happened. Okay, this, this piece was played and there's what it sounded like there's, there's what it looks like musicians, but at the end of the day, we really trying to think of a there's a bonding yeah, yeah, there's a bonding.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And five years, ten years, a month down the road a student may go on to do XYZ activity and inspire and by one little, little big concert, but a little thing years ago or months ago, they're bringing that into their practice and I think I'm sure you get feedback from past students on what they're doing and how you impacted what they're doing, and I think that obviously there's the job aspect with the money and the pain of bills, and that that obviously there's the the job aspect with the money and the pain of bills in that.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But when it comes down to it, if you take all that out, you want to make a positive impact and you want to help people. Like you said, coach them like a, like a sport, the baseball. You got the spring training and their people are rusty and they might not get a lot of playing time but then at the end of the year, before the playoffs start and then through the playoffs, that's where you want to be peaking and I think with the concerts, those are that's where you want. Yeah, they're mile markers for sure.

Dr. Isaacson:

They're mile markers for sure. And I think, touching on what you said about the job or compensation or all of that, yes, we need that and yes, music is a profession. It's a career on many different levels. It doesn't matter what type of thing. If you're in education generally, you're also doing performing other things on the outside, like many of our professors do here. We all have other things that come into that mix, but I think there is a, there is a vocation that comes with the arts and music that is beyond just a profession. Because of that bonding human element, I mean, I feel like I'm connected to hearts for music and those people in station, including you because of that experience that we had last night.

Dr. Isaacson:

It brought us all closer together because we were depending on one another and working towards something, to try to present something beautiful to the audience. That was so receptive and I think that process is really unique and really um special, you know to to what, to what we do in real time in music. It really is. So I, you know I'm I'm grateful to be a part of it. I'm grateful to actually sit down and talk to you about it, because up until this morning there was so much chaos getting there.

Dr. Isaacson:

Because there were just a lot of things that had to get worked out in the last two days, so it was all about the next thing, next thing, next thing, instead of finally, we're on stage, it happens and we can experience it, and now there's a moment to reflect on. Well, what was the impact of that? What did it do for people, what did it do for me personally, and how did it reach our audience? I feel like that's one of the things that I also teach. A conducting class here that was into all kinds of minutia about that and what we do, even though I am a trained violinist. That's sort of where my job has brought me as a duality, and one of the things we just had a bedroom test and one of the things that was on there had a lot to.

Dr. Isaacson:

There was a question in the score straight element what reaction do you want the audience to have? And that's an interesting question, question as a performer, because we usually are so focused on what is exactly happening real time, what our own expectations are we forget about. What do we want to give to the audience or how do we want them to react to what we're doing? And that's that's another way that door can swing open and you can think about what you're doing and gives you perspective.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, and they can put themselves in their own shoes when they attended concerts and shows and in the light and say, well, well, what was I hoping to get? Was I just hoping to just hear some music to support a friend, a family member? But to really put that in, in in the some music support a friend, a family member but to really put that in the perspective of, yeah, what is that impact? And I think I know for me, going through undergrad and then graduate school, it was always the next thing, the next thing, the next goal, the next goal, the next goal, next thing, the next thing, the next goal, the next goal, next goal. And I kind of got to a point where my, let's say, my next thing and next things got to be a little bit small. So a degree versus oh, I'm working on this project or whatever I'm doing and I'm not feeling validated in the same way that I was.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And to really look at things at that holistic level of what am I doing here on Earth? There's a reason why we're here, of what am I doing here on earth? There's a reason why we're here. We may understand a little bit, or a little slower, but we really don't know it. Why am I here? Why are you here? Why is Control, why are we on earth and how we're brought together? And I think that once I started looking at those things from the outside, kind of like that midterm question, I started to go okay, what do I want to do, not just for the paycheck, but for emotional as well, to help out. And that's why getting in a car and driving five hours, it was what it was.

Dr. Isaacson:

But I can't.

Justin Alan Hayes:

That experience was just incredible to be, to be a part and I control. Thank you, thank you, I said. I said no, thank you. Like you allowed me the opportunity, like you you're doing for me what you're doing for other orchestra members and in the audience, and it's really just a just a beautiful thing that when you bring those together, all walks of life, that, yes, your students in the audience, and it's really just a beautiful thing when you can bring those together all walks of life, yes, your students. A year ago did you think that you would be on stage with them?

Dr. Isaacson:

That's the thing, yeah that's the thing, and this all came about through human relationships. There's a student in the KU Orchestra who has been volunteering for Hearts for Music. She's a freshman in the KU Orchestra who has been volunteering for Hearts for Music. She's a freshman, her name is Paige Haight and she's the one that kind of made this connection. Otherwise, without that human connection, I wouldn't have necessarily pursued this, but I didn't know yeah, and so I find that always really interesting because those connections run deep and yes can be a very powerful word.

Dr. Isaacson:

I think being open to things that are out of the norm really can can can be really gifts actually, and you might you might not realize it until you're going through the process, because it's very easy to get into patterns of what we do, patterns of this. The next thing, like you, kind of what you were saying about grad school, the general expectations that we have for our careers or education, all those things, and I think what you hit upon is exactly, I think, what you come to a maturity is what do I want to impart? How do I want to affect people and help and the future, what is my broader mission of good? Because I think that's something that we all reflect on in our own mortality as we go forward. What do I want to help with?

Dr. Isaacson:

And so I think I'm grateful to music, because that gives me a built-in mission and it gives me a built-in platform. Because if I were not an orchestra director, last night would not have happened in my life. And I'll tell you, in my younger years I sometimes resented it. Oh, I would too, because I got three degrees in violin and I started out as a violin teacher and professor and playing a lot, and then, suddenly a previous job the orchestra became what I was doing too, and so, but as I get older, I realize that it's also been an extraordinary gift. It's a burden, but also an extraordinary gift.

Justin Alan Hayes:

We're at the end of this particular episode. Do you mind sticking around to continue the conversation? Sure, we can continue that awareness.

Dr. Isaacson:

Yeah, of course.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Well, thank you, our listeners, our viewers, wherever you're at. If you can give us a big thumbs up, we would really appreciate it. Subscribe, and we want to thank Dr Isaacson here, the Kutztown Orchestra Director, for joining us on this episode.

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