Emilia believes that everyone has a song inside them. She uses warmth, humor, and the variety of skills she’s amassed through 15 years of facilitating workshops to tease out the best creative work in people.

Most Workshops include:

• Following a six step process for writing songs that’s easy to follow (for beginners)

• Creating strong and poetic, imagery heavy lyrics

• Making melodies that soar and move

• Playing with rhythm and meter to create a unique feel

• Experimenting with musical tools and tricks to help support the emotion you want to convey in a creative way

Emilia is on the juried Maine Arts Commission Teaching Artist Roster and trained in Creative aging programming.

Link to Emilia’s professional CV

  To bring Emilia to your school, organization, Computer, or home, send an inquiry through the contact page.

WHY SONGWRITING?

Writing and singing together foster a sense of unity that is unique and powerful. Research has proven the many intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual benefits of singing.

Professor Sarah Wilson, one of the leading researchers on the neurological benefits of music, says that ‘music is to mental health what sport is to physical health’. The mental connections that music makes have been shown to translate to academic benefits, including improved literacy, numeracy, spatial abilities, executive functioning and intelligence, as well as greater school attendance and participation. They also extend to self-confidence, self-discipline, teamwork and social skills.

The process of songwriting engages people in the joyful adventure of writing, often in a new way, an opportunity to practice writing skills through a different lens. Songwriting gives students the opportunity to elevate and enliven their thoughts, opinions, and voices, and does so in a collaborative way.

Through a six-year partnership with Maine Academy of Modern Music and Ocean Ave Elementary School in Portland, Emilia has helped an entire generation of students to co-create over 120 songs, working with all 450 students (K-5).  It's a body of work that explores literary tools, the building blocks of songs, and subjects ranging from friendship, appreciating differences, nature, growing up, and creating positive change in the world to historical events and treasured stories.