The Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association

passages

What is MAR Passages?

Mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) Passages is an annual one-day conference launched in the MAR in 2004. Initiated by two graduate students from New York University, Mechelle Chestnut and Jenny Hoi Yan Fu, MAR Passages is based on the model from Passages in the New England Region, an initiative created by Lisa Kynvi MA, MT-BC, in 2000 to serve as a mechanism of passage from student to professional.

Opening Exercise led by Diane Austin, DA, ACMT

MAR Passages is supported and sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association and the Music Therapy Rules! Concert.The conference includes presentations by senior undergraduate and graduate students and new professionals. Attendance is open to the public. The location of MAR Passages will rotate yearly and will be hosted by an accredited music therapy school in the MAR.

The goals for MAR Passages are:

1) to provide senior undergraduate students, graduate students, and new professionals in the MAR with opportunities to build presentation skills in a professional forum; and

2) to facilitate and support a sense of community for students and new professionals in the MAR (a new professional is defined as a music therapist in their first five years of practice in the MAR).

The MAR Passages Logo, resembles the music symbol “natural”, and holds two different meanings in itself.

First, the implied circle in the middle of the symbol conveys the ideas of embracing and wholeness. One of the goals of MAR Passages is to foster an embracing environment to facilitate and support a sense of community for students and new professionals in the region, as we are here together as a whole.

Second, the concept of the logo comes from a game in which two people lift up another person by making a “seat” with their arms.

The game goes like this: two people face each other, with each holding, let's say, the left arm out, while the right hand holds onto the left upper arm, making an "L" shape. Then, each person uses his/her left hand to hold onto the other person's right lower arm, making a square together, which now can serve as a seat to hold another person on top and have him or her carried over whatever obstacle lies ahead. When looking from above, the armchair looks exactly like our logo. As we are here altogether today, we share and learn from each other. We all hold out our arms and make this giant seat together, to hold and support each other, to carry each other through this exciting transition from studenthood to professional life.