Featured Creative Mom - Robin Spielberg (warning, you might need a tissue)

Robin Spielberg is a celebrated pianist and composer throughout the United States and Asia, making her living as a recording and performing artist for the past 25 years. As a solo artist who is known for her expressive style and heartfelt melodies, fan letters from around the world are frequent reminders how Robin’s music has affected very personal moments in people’s lives. From marriage proposals to exchanging wedding vows; using her music to practice yoga or listening while enduring chemo therapy, Robin’s music is more than just enjoyment and entertainment - it’s an essential element during some of life’s most imperative moments.

But it wasn't until Robin became a mother that she discovered the true transformative power of music.

In 1998, Robin was pregnant with twin girls when something went terribly wrong. An infection invaded the placenta of one of the fetuses causing Robin to go into pre-term labor at just 21.5 weeks. Viability is not sustained until the 25th week, and clearly Robin and both babies were in danger. The doctors placed her on hospital bed rest, delaying the labor as long as they could. At 23 weeks, 5 days, Robin delivered her babies by emergency Caesarian section. One baby did not survive. The second little girl, weighing just 1 lb, 1 ounce had very little chance of surviving but miraculously she lived through the first night. Robin and her husband, Larry Kosson, named their daughter Valerie, for strength and valor.

Because Robin was infected as well, she could not see her newborn for two weeks. Larry was the liaison between mother and child, and Robin begged him to bring her prior recordings into the neo-natal intensive care unit. Larry brought two of Robin’s CDs into the NICU and asked the nurses to play the music softly for Valerie as a way for mother and daughter to have a crucial bond. In utero Valerie had heard her mother’s music since conception. The baby had not yet been placed in an incubator, as the NICU staff didn’t believe she would live, but the nurses played the music to pacify the parents who were understandably grief stricken.

Nurses began noticing that when Robin's music was playing near Valerie's station, her vital signs improved. This happened on a consistent basis over a four-month period. And it wasn’t only Valerie who benefited from the music, other NICU infants responded as well.

Perplexed as to how music could have such a powerful effect on such a small vulnerable being, Robin did some research and discovered the American Music Therapy Association. AMTA's web site led her to discover the work of Dr. Jane Standley, a researcher and physician who has spent over 20 years researching the effects of music on premature infants.

Robin now serves as Celebrity Artist Spokesperson for AMTA and gives workshops and seminars around the country on the transformative power of music. She also introduces students to the potential of becoming music therapists as a career. Robin's CD, Beautiful Dreamer: Lullabies For the Parent & Child
is the result of Valerie's stay in the NICU, and is used in hospitals across the country to calm babies. Robin donates $1 from each sale of the CD to AMTA research.

Valerie is an active ten-year old, who loves reading Harry Potter novels, and while she suffers from epilepsy and some minor learning delays, music has been an integral part of her recovery and every day life. As a mainstreamed fourth grader in public school, Valerie takes percussion and piano lessons, and uses music therapy services to help her retain information that might otherwise be a nearly impossible achievement.

In fact Valerie is the first student to receive music therapy as part of her individual education plan (IEP) in a public school in York County, a rural part of Pennsylvania. Robin and Valerie's public school music teacher have been setting Valerie's science and social studies material to music. Melody, rhythm, and percussive elements are keys to helping Valerie remember details. The results have been nothing less than astounding.

Valerie has progressed from getting D's on tests to receiving A's, through remediation and repetition. Making music with her mom is a seemingly normal way to connect for a child who could only respond to her mothers’ music, not her touch in the most critical moments of her life.

This was a guest post from Robin Spielberg and Brio Public Relations
photo by Larry Kosson

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