Honors Course in KindnessThis student-centered course looks at kindness through the focused lenses of psychology, social work, political science, economics, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, communications, literature, spirituality and personal practice.

This student-centered, community-cultivating course engages and critically assesses music as a socially-reflective art. Music is the vehicle for a journey into multiple dimensions of human behavior, with side-trips through rhetoric, political theory, sociology, narrative, ideology and identity.Flowing from a wide variety of cultural texts and a pan-historic genre-busting playlist, students correlate musical forms, processes and expressions with the societies from which they spring—including their own. Cross-cutting themes include: music as dialogue; music as thought; music as ideology; music as a mirror of government; music and social movements; and music's evolutionary role in human development.

The Honors Think Tank on Alzheimer’s Disease and Aging is a multi-disciplinary two-semester course that links current scientific understanding of Alzheimer’s disease with social and public policy issues facing patients, families and society. The Think Tank is team-taught by Phillip Bimstein, Dr. Norman Foster and Dr. Vicky Newman. Involving faculty from the sciences, public policy, the humanities, and the arts enables students to appreciate the linkages among intellectual fields, develop a basic scientific understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, and explore the medical, ethical, philosophical, and public policy issues that accompany it.

In this unique Honors course, students explore and experience contemplative practices from around the world and throughout history—from the ancient to the modern, from the spiritual to the secular, from the visionary to the embodied—and consider these practices’ potential for interacting with, and deepening, university education. Students learn hands-on practices from the instructors and from distinguished visitors from numerous secular and spiritual traditions (mindfulness and insight meditation, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, traditional yoga, Qigong, Quaker practice, Catholic and Islamic mystical poetry, contemplative psychotherapy and Jewish Kabbalah, among others).Students not only learn about the practices but personally and actively experience them (through in-depth classroom sessions and continuing at home). The course also presents the latest medical and scientific research on meditation (including visits by medical and neuroscience faculty), and students explore the growing use of contemplative practices in universities around the country.Students then conceive and implement collaborative and innovative class projects that apply these practices to the university. Some of the areas the students’ project(s) may impact could possibly include classroom applications, program development, workshops, campus wellness, mental health, and more. Students partner with campus and/or off-campus organizations to take what they have learned and experienced into the community and world.Together, we work to “open the mind’s eye”—to unlock the mind and heart’s potential for our full humanness.

Altermative classical music for concert, dance, radio, TV, film

Keynote speaker and panelist on civic dialogue, governance, community-building, gateway issues, cultural capital, oral histories and music

Red Rock Rondo is an Americana chamber folk sextet which performs the “Zion Canyon Song Cycle,” commissioned by the American Composers Forum Continental Harmony program. These oral-history songs cover the pioneering of Springdale, Utah by Mormon settlers in the 19th century, the founding of Zion National Park in the 20th century, and modern times where retirees, artists and urban refugees have come to find their own piece of paradise.It is performed by an all-star ensemble playing a lively assortment of instruments including guitars, violins, oboe, English horn, mandolin, banjo, mandocello, harmonica, button accordion, jaw harp, upright bass and vocals.Red Rock Rondo's “Zion Canyon Song Cycle” CD reached #10 on the international Folk Radio charts, and it included the #7 song. The song cycle was the subject of a music special produced by the Western Folklife Center, broadcast locally on KUED and available on a high-definition DVD in celebration of Zion National Park's centennial year.

Heart & Soul brings hope, healing and joy to 15,000 people each year by producing over 600 live shows at convalescent homes, senior centers, hospitals, centers for children with disabilities, psychiatric facilities, domestic abuse shelters and prisons.

The Utah Humanities Council enriches cultural, intellectual, and civic life by providing opportunities to explore life's most engaging questions and the wonders of the human experience. UHC sponsors programs designed to enrich public discussion and encourage citizen involvement.Board of Directors 1998-2005, Chair 2004-2005

The American Music Center was a non-profit organization which promoted the creation, performance, and enjoyment of new American music. It was founded in 1939 as a membership organization by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.On November 8, 2011, the American Music Center merged with Meet The Composer to form New Music USA. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as NewMusicBox and Counterstream Radio.Board of Directors 2000-2008, Vice-President 2004-2005

Legislative and Judicial responsibilities

Meet The Composer's Utah Composer-in-Residence

Spoke to incarcerated youth about creativity and citizenship; composed the techno tone poem, "Lockdown!," based on the youth's stories and voices, and orchestrating the sounds of their jail cells.

Wrote, produced and hosted the monthly new music program, "The Music of Our Time."

Directed, curated and produced a new music festival, including classical, experimental, jazz, rock and world music; commissioned new work; major supporters: New Music America, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Eccles Foundation.