– CLOSED TO PUBLIC – The Multifaceted Career: Aline Benoit

Longy School of Music of Bard College is proud to present The Multifaceted Career Speaker Series featuring conversations with musicians who defy categorization. As an essential component of Longy’s career coaching program, this series fosters an exploration of how we (re)define individual success in our diverse and growing field.

Aline Benoit, MA, CMP, is an active freelance clarinetist who has performed and recorded with numerous Boston ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and the Chamber Orchestra of Boston. For over twenty years, she played and toured with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and for twelve years, she was a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Ms. Benoit was a faculty member at the Longy School of Music in the Mind/Body and Teaching Artist Programs, where she taught a popular performance psychology/wellness course. Dedicated to Longy’s mission of community engagement, she also designed and taught the project-based course Music as a Healing Art, and facilitated her students’ interactive performances at Longy’s Community Partners, a group of area health-care sites. Currently she serves as the coordinator of the Music as a Healing Art Initiative, running the Longy/Music for Healing and Transition Program Summer Institute. As coordinator, she works with Longy, MHTP and area hospitals and care facilities to train musicians in therapeutic music and to establish the profession of therapeutic music in the greater Boston area.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Benoit also holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University, and has completed the teacher training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the U. Mass. Center for Mindfulness. She is a Certified Music Practitioner, through the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP), and is currently working with the Palliative Care Team at Mount Auburn Hospital, offering therapeutic music to patients. In addition to her work as a therapeutic musician, she is an ensemble leader with Shelter Music Boston, an organization bringing live, professional music to Boston area shelters that serve families with young children, domestic violence survivors, adults of all ages, and those recovering from addiction.

Of her work as a CMP with the Palliative Care Team at Mount Auburn Hospital, Benoit stated that therapeutic music can be a significant career adjunct for compassionate musicians. With the changes in health care and the movement towards complementary therapies, the reduction of pharmaceutical use in treating the elderly, and the opioid crisis., this is a great time for a program like this to flourish. There is so much suffering in the world, and it is deeply moving and gratifying to witness the power our music can have in alleviating some of it. Working as a CMP has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my career.

*Tickets are not required for attendance