“This book is written from the heart. It will bring music to your ears.”
~ Mary O’Malley, What’s In the Way IS the Way and The Gift of Our Compulsions
“Janet Kessenich’s Music Lessons for the Spirit is a touchingly personal and inspiring book. It offers an alternative vision for what might be possible for an artistic life, or even a life touched by music. The personal stories and recollections of frustration and struggle will be familiar to many who have tried to learn to sing or play an instrument. This book reveals a wise musician’s journey of discovery about a deeper meaning beyond standard musical training and development. She shows how it can lead to healing, an appreciation of music’s expressive power, and an expansive experience of life and the cosmos. There is much here to learn and it is a delight to read.”
~ Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell, pianist and President/Creative Director Amade Music
“The power of Janet Kessenich's book lies as much in the honesty and intelligence with which she unveils difficult personal truths as in the wisdom and tough-mindedness of the Lessons which result. While drawing imaginatively and eruditely from music, literature, religion and mathematics, the greatest pleasure of Music Lessons for the Spirit is in observing the warmth and spaciousness of the healer's heart break through the defenses of the conscientious classical musician. Kessenich's wonderfully empathetic description of a teenage girl's rendering of Amazing Grace at a Quaker wedding is one of many outstanding moments.”
~ Jim Maguire, musician, poet and winner of the 2012 Strokestown International Poetry Prize
