Sarah DeM.

Sarah DeM. is pursuing a graduate degree in Music Therapy at SUNY New Paltz. In May 2013, she graduated with honors from SUNY Geneseo after completing a dual major in Piano Performance and Psychology. At Geneseo, Sarah was an avid participant in many venues of ensemble work, especially the Geneseo Chamber Singers and Percussion Ensemble. With the Geneseo Chamber Singers she toured D.C., NYC and many other venues including an international tour in Spain and Portugal. She won the Geneseo Honors Competition in piano in the spring of both 2011 and 2012. In 2011, she attended a one-week training/certification seminar in Music Mind Games, a music theory teaching technique. In her private piano teaching and other musical endeavors, she utilizes a demonstrative multi-modality method of teaching drawing from research on motivation and attention. Sarah has acted as intern to a private piano teacher, teacher’s assistant in a collegiate theory skills class, and as music tutor and private teacher.

Sarah has trained with music therapists in a variety of clinical settings, particularly with children and adults with developmental disabilities. She is currently training with music therapists at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in the Hudson Valley.

Sarah plans to be an active researcher in music psychology and music therapy, particularly involving attention and motivation. She is currently working on a book with a pancreatic cancer survivor who benefits from music therapy in rehabilitation after brain damage from chemotherapy. She presented the case study at the 2014 National Music Therapy Conference. Sarah's blog post on the work with Clara was published in a local newspaper, click "The Rewiring of a Beautiful Mind."

In the past summer, Sarah worked as a restaurant supervisor at a fine dinging restaurant on Canandaigua Lake. Sarah has also been involved for three years at Rotary Camp Onseyawa in August, where she began as a camp counselor and eventually started a Music Program where she facilitates group participation in rock-band style singing and instrument playing, drum circles, calming music and music games. She looks forward to continuing her work with people through shared musical experiences.