Take a moment and ask yourself if you listen, really listen, to music. “Of course,” you say. “How else do I experience music if I don’t listen?”
You appreciate the power of music to affect your mood, your appetite, your buying impulses, your memories of a romantic interlude. It accompanies you in an elevator and propels the energy in a concert filled with ecstatic fans. You can’t imagine your favorite film without the musical soundtrack, or social media reels without the music of the week.
Think of the many times you have been transported by a melody.
For decades, Bill Shontz entertained children and their families as one half of the duo Rosenshontz. Now the parents of those children are grandparents, and the children are parents. The music is timeless and Living Whole Online brings the collection to you for another generation to enjoy, complete with some insightful and entertaining Behind the Music conversations between Kathryn and Bill.
I think there is another whole evolution of the Rosenshontz records. When we first started, I did it with my child in mind…I listened to the music that was out there at the time, and it was pretty sad. I kept saying to myself, “I can do better than that!” We put in a lot of love and care into making those albums timeless.
-Bill Shontz
In this podcast, Bill and Kathryn explore the freedom of improvisation and the healing effects on our bodies of vibration that comes from music.
In me, in my soul, I want the music to take me somewhere, somewhere out there, then take me back down, then bring me back up…it’s a journey…
-Bill Shontz
Bill Shontz has ten award-winning albums that have sold over 700,000 copies, and three videos, one of which was nominated for an Emmy. His first solo album, “Animal Tales”, was acclaimed by numerous magazines and received multiple awards, as was his recording, “Teddy Bear’s Greatest Hits”
“The Day I Read A Book”, is designed to encourage children and families in their love of books and reading, and has won the 1999 Parent’s Choice Silver Award. Another album teaches children of all ages about managing money.
Bill has been a spokesperson for the environmental groups Earthwatch and Green Up Vermont and was a featured performer at the Electrification US Symposium, and PSEG’s Global Green Expo.
His song One Earth, written decades ago and performed with award-winning singer Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables), is a precient and haunting reminder that Bill was warning us about climate change well before we began to notice its effects in our daily lives.
Bill has written a book on Improvisation which is about listening, really listening. Bill conducts online workshops, and will offer Live with Facilitator sessions in Living Whole Online which you can enjoy whether or not you play an instrument, because everyone can sing!
If you have been trained in music, he will help you free yourself from self-judgement and written music, because he love to teach “paper trained” musicians that you can learn to improvise and discover the inner creativity that lives within your soul.
Improvisation is about freeing yourself from the written page.
Most of what I have to teach is how to let go of judgement and learn how to listen.
-Bill Shontz