Enlighten: Uplift & Inspire

My guest today is Essence Cohen Fields. Living and working just outside of Philadelphia, PA, Essence is a therapist, specializing in trauma release and boundary setting. Essence is dedicated to helping others heal from traumas, shore up resiliency, and boost confidence to face all that life presents. She skillfully guides her clients through experiences of abuse, anger management issues, work-life balance, self esteem concerns, parent-child relational issues, anxiety, grief and depression. Essence combines cognitive behavioral and solution focused counseling techniques, with EMDR, (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) and her motivational coaching approach. Essence’s logo is “FLY Counseling” the F-L-Y, stands for First Love Yourself and she cleverly uses fly as in helping people fly and soar into their potential as well as “to be fly”, in all that you do! She believes that to heal and have a positive impact in the world, we fist need to love ourselves. Essence cares deeply about bringing out the best in people and dreams of someday creating a holistic healing center in her community. Check out the links below to see Essence’s website, where you can find the therapeutic services she offers, a book that she published (a fun and easy read) called "A Lesson On How To F.L.Y", as well as her limited series podcast called “The F.L.Y.”, a podcast focused on developing insight into the importance of self love. Enjoy the podcast! Links: Website: flycounseling.com FB: firstloveyourselfcounseling IG: @flycounseling

My guest today is Justin Stanton. Justin is an amazing trumpeter, keyboard player, composer, and producer. Justin primarily performs, records and tours with Snarky Puppy, Huntertones, and Banda Magda. Although you can find him collaborating with his "puppies", Mike “Maz” Maher, Chris Bullock or Robert ‘Sput’ Searight on their original projects. Justin humbly shares his growth as he built inner confidence and deep gratitude for the challenges inherent in the music business. He has traveled the world, been to every continent, except Antarctica and shares how blown away he was by a recent trip to Morocco. During this festival, Justin experienced a different kind of music collaboration, which meant letting go of preconceived notions and staying open, curious and engaged. Justin’s long awaited solo debut album “Secret Place” was released on May 3rd, 2019 and the next night Justin had a celebratory live performance of his album at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC. I invite you to purchase this creative, soulful record!!!  Check out the links below to do so, see a music video of his song “What Do You Want?” as well as a cool partially-animated music video of the song he wrote “Bad Kids to the Back” for Snarky Puppy’s newest album "Immigrance". I encourage you to experience Justin’s awesome talent live!! Enjoy the podcast. Links: FB: justinmstanton IG: @justinstanton TW: @ _justinstanton Video: For a song Justin wrote for Snarky Puppy’s newest album "Immigrance" called “Bad Kids in the Back”  Video: "What Do You Want?", featuring Melanie Watson, from Justin's latest album Snarky Puppy Ground Up Music

My guest today is Brent Frederick. Brent is a music director, pianist, arranger, and conductor. Brent appreciates and invests in all of his freelance music projects, valuing the need to be versatile, live by the golden rule, while continually evolving. From Busch Gardens, to cruise ships, Broadway national tours, to Broadway shows, cabarets, churches, to concert halls, Brent has brought integrity and humility to his work. He did a beautiful job with the arrangements for his wife, Jacqueline Petroccia’s recent album “Champagne and Moonshine” - Jackie was a recent podcast guest of mine, you can hear her story on episode #61. In between playing piano and/or conducting Broadway shows, Brent enjoys conducting a NYC chorus called Art Mob, that performs in various art galleries. Their next performances are May 17, 18, and 19, 2019. As a father of a newborn, Brent admits the challenge and responsibility of raising a white son in an environment where we need to destroy patriarchy, misogyny and white supremacy. Brent wants to bring his son into the world with consciousness, sensitivity and compassion for other human beings. He is excited that NYC’s diversity will provide a representative world community for his son, Theo. Check out the links below for Brent’s website and find out when and where you can hear him perform and/or conduct a concert, along with all the music services he provides. You’ll see links to his wife Jackie’s website, the Art Mob chorus, as well as the Doo Wop Project that he fills in as musical director. In fact, Brent has orchestrated the song “Friends in Low Places” for a 60 piece orchestra that the Doo Wop Project will debut with the Indianapolis Symphony the weekend of May 17, 2019.  Enjoy the podcast! Links: brentfrederickmusic.com jacquelinepetroccia.com thedoowopproject.com artmob.org

My guest today is Michelle Willis. Michelle is a British-born, Canadian-raised, and current American-resident, singer/songwriter/musician. Blending jazz, folk, gospel and blues, Michelle’s voice is truly like an angel. No surprise then, that from a very young age she sang with the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Canadian Children’s Opera Choir and by age 14 Michelle was a professional singer with an Anglican church choir. Michelle balances her own music with impressive side-woman projects where she collaborates with musicians who inspire her, such as Mike League, Snarky Puppy, Mike “Maz” Maher, Becca Stevens, and David Crosby. You can hear Michelle on her 2016 debut album “See Us Through”, on Snarky Puppy’s "Family Dinner, Volume 2" album, and on David Crosby’s Lighthouse album “Here If You Listen” where she, Becca Stevens, Mike League and David Crosby co-wrote all the songs. Michelle tours with the Becca Stevens Band, as well as with David Crosby’s Sky Trails Band and Lighthouse Band. Michelle speaks of the important influencers Caitlin Hanford, Don Rooke, and Hugh Marsh at the start of her music career; the delights and strains of tour life; the discipline it takes to carve out quiet, reflective time; and how dedicated she is to nourish and cultivate her own centeredness and creativity.   Having won a grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts, Michelle’s new record will be released in 2020, with 10 of Michelle’s songs. These songs will be offered in 2 versions: live in concert from Toronto (scheduled for the Fall of 2019), as well as studio-produced tracks that she is currently working on. Michelle has a NYC residency at Rockwood Music Hall, on the last Monday of every month. In fact, join me on Monday April 29, 2019 to hear Michelle live! Check out the links below to find Michelle’s beautifully formatted, comprehensive website, to see her tour schedule, photos and videos. Oh, and don’t forget to follow Michelle on Instagram. Trust me you will be entertained!! Enjoy the podcast! Links: www.michellewillis.ca IG: @boutwillismusic www.davidcrosby.com www.snarkypuppy.com www.beccastevens.com www.louiscato.com www.fabulousfab.com Mike Maz Maher

My guest today is Spencer Lott.  Spencer is a maker, artist, puppeteer and writer. In addition to all of his creative gifts, Spencer is a thought machine, in fact, one of Spencer’s thoughts planted the seed that inspired me to create this podcast. Spencer grew up in Kansas, and as a kindergartner, impressively wrote “I want to be the next Jim Henson.” He truly appreciates how supportive his parents were in helping him fill his artistic toolbox. By age 16, Spencer started his own puppet company. He learned how to sew, paint and sculpt. From his intensive high level training at the Eugene O’Neil National Puppetry Conference (which he attended 8 times!), his theater degree at the University of Kansas, to his years in NYC, Spencer now is a busy free-lancer, working for Sesame Street, Trusty Sidekick Theater Company as well as designing puppets for theater companies, advertising agencies and production companies. Spencer’s enthusiasm, curiosity and reverence for wonder, clearly generates his flow of new ideas. He was recently hired to rebuild the iconic puppet characters for the new Fred Rodgers film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” starring Tom Hanks which is scheduled  to be released in October 2019. Spencer is currently in pre-production for a show he is co-creating called “9,000 Paper Balloons”. Check out the show notes to see Spencer’s website, which in itself is a beautiful, creative site to explore, along with the non-profit theater company, Trusty Sidekick and an article from the experimental theater HERE, about his play "9,000 Paper Balloons". This thought machine, innovative maker is a true gem. Enjoy the podcast!   Links: www.misterlott.com www.trustysidekick.org IG: @misterlott 9,000 Paper Balloons