NPR's Health blog: Singing therapy is proving effective for stroke patients

Laurel Fontaine, 16, (left) and her twin sister Heather. When Laurel was 11 years old, she suffered a stroke that destroyed 80 percent of the left side of her brain. The singing therapy helped her regain the ability to speak. 

From "Shots," NPR's Health blog:

Debra Meyerson was hiking near Lake Tahoe 15 months ago when a stroke destroyed part of the left side of her brain, leaving her literally speechless. It happens to more than 150,000 Americans a year. 

But now Meyerson is learning to talk again through an approach that trains the undamaged right side of her brain to "speak." Specifically, it's a region that controls singing.For more than 100 years, it's been known that people who can't speak after injury to the speech centers on the left side of the brain can sing. 

In the 1970s, Boston researchers started to use a sort of "singing therapy" to help stroke survivors speak again. 

However, it never caught on much – perhaps because a lot of therapists, not to mention patients, weren't comfortable singing what they wanted to say. And back then, the science wasn't advanced enough to show the actual changes in the brain that result from the therapy. 

That's changing fast.

Wyoming Public Radio offers highlights of Grand Teton Music Festival's 50th season

Wyoming Public Radio announces that highlights from the 50th Anniversary season of the Grand Teton Music Festival will air Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on WPR and Classical Wyoming through September 10. Programs repeat Saturday afternoons at 4 p.m. on Classical Wyoming. Click here for a Grand Teton Music Festival broadcast schedule. 

NPR reps speak in Laramie Sept. 27

Two representatives from National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., will be presenting programs in Laramie on Monday, September 27. The event is sponsored by Wyoming Public Radio.

Here's the schedule:

“The World of Changing Media,” 10 a.m., Coe Library 506,
Discussion focus:
· Shifting ethical sands in media
· Internet journalism
· NPR’s opportunities and challenges

“NPR is Listening,” 5:30 p.m., Hilton Garden Inn Salon C
News panel discussion with
· Ellen Weiss, NPR Senior Vice President for News
· Alicia Shepard, NPR Ombudsman
· Wyoming Public Radio News Director, Bob Beck

Hors d’oeuvres and cash bar.

FMI: http://www.wyomingpublicradio.net/programmingupdate.html

Call for entries: NPR's "Three-Minute Fiction"

Enter your story (600 words or less) to NPR's "Three Minute Fiction" contest.

Each round, our judges throw out a challenge. This time, your story must begin with the line, "Some people swore that the house was haunted." It must end with, "Nothing was ever the same again after that."

Author Michael Cunningham is the judge (and he also came up with the opening and closing lines.

FMI: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129752769

Anne and Pete Sibley perform this weekend at Pickamania in Silver City, N.M.

Anne and Pete Sibley of Jackson will be one of thirteen musical groups performing this weekend at the second annual Pickamania in Gough Park in Silver City, N.M. Performances begin at 6 p.m. today (Friday) and are free and open to the public.

Here's more from an article in the Silver City Sun-News:

Wyoming's Anne and Pete Sibley were recently awarded top honors in the NPR's Prairie Home Companion Great American Sing-off.

"We are very excited to come to Pickamania," Anne Sibley said. "Neither of us have ever stepped foot in New Mexico before and are excited to have the chance to finally do so. The landscapes are breathtaking around here, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah and now, New Mexico. It seems that lots of people are grateful for life and for the love of music."

The Sibleys will offer the first of three musical workshops throughout the weekend. Workshops will be held in the Wells Fargo Bank. Cost for each workshop is $10.

Anne was awarded a 2009 performing arts fellowship in music performance from the Wyoming Arts Council.

FMI: http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_13304550