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Andrea Cortez – COTFG Interview Series

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Andrea Cortez, MM, MT-BC, is a board certified music therapist who uses the power of music to create positive change in the listener.

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Her work focuses on how rhythm, harmony, and other elements of sound can help improve the health of our mind, body and spirit. She is also a sound artist, composer and sound meditation teacher. In addition to working individually with people, her work explores the relationship between the elements of music and the natural world. She incorporates playing music with both animals and plants demonstrating the presence of music as a fundamental structure found in nature. She is owner of Mind Body Music Center, a sound therapy studio, where she is based in Austin, TX.

COTFG – Do you think of yourself as a therapist or musician?
Andrea Cortez – I definitely think of myself as a therapist first. I never really considered myself an entertainer, mostly because I have introverted tendencies. If it weren’t for my love of music, I wouldn’t put myself in performing situations.

Growing up music was always a personal and introspective experience and it was my safe haven from the world. I think this is why I became a music therapist, because it was part of my journey in learning how to navigate the world around me and in me. So I would say I really don’t fit into the music entertainment category although I am performing in a way as I play for groups of people. In this case I guess I don’t feel like a performer. I feel more like I am creating a space with the listeners, inviting them to participate, and connecting to what it is that they may need. I remember when I was studying music therapy my professor said something that really stuck with me. He said that we would need to be proficient at several roles, being a therapist, a musician, and a scientist. When you mix those together you are able to explore some very interesting perspectives on music.

What are your influences for your recent work?
Connecting to Nature has influenced my work. This year I released recordings of harp and plant generated music. And the more I explored nature the more I could see that these are not separate. If you break down sound into its fundamental elements you find frequency, rhythm, melody, harmony, and silence. These are elements that are present everywhere in the living world. So there is music in nature and there is nature in music. I am seeing that many people want to connect more to nature, especially now during this difficult period of social separation. We are looking for ways to connect to life and to be hopeful. I think both music and nature help us to do that. And this is what I aim to do, to express the therapeutic qualities of music and nature so that others can feel relief from stressful times.

What have you been listening to lately?
I guess it’s not surprising that lately I have been listening to nature sounds as well as capturing field recordings around my neighborhood. Behind my house is a pond that seems to be a lively ecosystem of insects and animals. The frogs there are my favorite. They have an interesting way that they synchronize their sounds together. I recorded them and they will be featured on my upcoming album.

All artists are missing the live connection but I would assume your practice has suffered even more so. What ways of expression and connection do you hope to explore using recorded video or live streaming?
This year was a difficult transition of moving all my work to video recording and livestream. There is an added benefit of experiencing live vibrations and being in the same room as the instruments being played. But I have managed to still offer sessions and sound meditation classes online while maintaining a high quality of sound for the listeners which is very important for this work. I use instruments that produce a wide range of overtones and I want to transmit as much of that sound as I can online. I have received positive feedback that my live streams are helping people to feel less stressed, more grounded, less anxious, more peaceful, and calm. So I plan to continue to offer virtual sound therapy sessions and livestream events as a resource of wellness and mental health support for people. I also have had the opportunity to meet people outside of Austin, which has been a positive outcome of having more of a virtual presence online.

Find out more at MindBodyMusicCenter.com or on Andrea’s Instagram.

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