Transcending through Music

When the Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist, Sharon Isbin, performed at Ground Zero in honor of those lost on September 11, she proved that music is a powerful healing tool. A 40-year meditator, Sharon brings audiences to transcendence through the universality of her music. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version

(00:22):
of themselves. And now I want to help you do
the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
and let's begin today's journey. The day was September eleven,
two thousand and two, which was the date of the
first annual nine eleven Memorial. Sharon Issman, one of the

(00:46):
greatest classical guitarists in the world, was nearly overcome by emotion.
She was standing by the stage at Ground zero in
New York City, waiting to perform with Yo Yo Ma
and the Juilliard String Quartet in front of forty family
members and survivors. Someone was going to read the three
thousand names of those who had been lost the year before.

(01:09):
As the musicians performed I'm a New Yorker, Sharon recalled,
I experienced the trauma of nine eleven firsthand. I wondered
if I could do it. I wondered if I would
break down, But the moment she walked across the stage,
the stress lifted and her fears dissipated. This is why

(01:30):
I'm a musician. I want to be part of this healing,
she thought to herself. As she settled into her chair.
The audience was standing right in front of her. She
could see the posters they were holding with pictures of
their lost loved ones. She could look right into their eyes.
It was so moving. I can't put it into words.

(01:50):
I found myself almost in a zone like when I meditate.
I felt every emotion. I was fully present, fully alert,
but also somehow deeply peaceful and silent inside. I will
never forget that moment. Sharon has been as a good
friend and a force of nature. Among her long list

(02:11):
of accolades, she is a two time Grammy Award winning
classical guitarist, director of the Guitar Department at the Juilliard School,
and most recently winner of the Instrumentalist of the Year
from Musical America. Sharon became a classical guitarist almost by
default at the age of nine. Her family moved to
Italy because her father, a chemical engineer, took a consulting

(02:35):
job near Milan. While in Italy, Sharon's older brother, Ira,
asked to take guitar lessons. He secretly wanted to be
the next Elvis Presley. With the best of intentions, his
parents found him an excellent classical guitar teacher who had
studied with Segovia. IRA's response, classical guitar no way. Aaron

(03:00):
volunteered to take his place, but just for fun, certainly
not as a future career path. A year later, Sharon's
family moved back to Minneapolis, which is where she set
her sights on her future profession. She wanted to become
a rocket scientist. In fact, Sharon's new favorite hobby was
launching model rockets into the air, but she continued to

(03:23):
practice guitar faithfully, and at age fourteen, she won a
statewide competition, the award to perform solo with the Minnesota
Orchestra before ten thousand people. That experience changed everything. It
was like a light bulb went off in my head.
I realized that performing in front of an audience was

(03:43):
a lot more fun than sending worms and grasshoppers into
space in my model rocket. She realized then she wanted
to be a classical guitarist. Sharon has been meditating for
more than forty years. Without exaggeration, she says her twice
daily practice has doubled, which is able to accomplish in
any given day. At about four or five o'clock in

(04:05):
the afternoon, after I've had a long day, I'm ready
to collapse from exhaustion. Instead, I take twenty minutes to meditate,
and afterwards I feel completely rejuvenated, ready for the second
half of my day. For Sharon, who has performed solo
and two hundred of the world's finest recital halls, music
can provide an experience of transcendence. Even if a song

(04:29):
has lyrics you don't understand. There's something so powerful about
music that allows anyone to transcend sadness or pain, or
loss or any emotion. It can bring an audience to
a place of joy, to a place of peace. Just
this past week, Sharon released two new albums, Strings for

(04:50):
Peace and Affinity. I would like to conclude this podcast
with an excerpt from a joyous Venezuelan waltz from Affinity.
The music for this album was writ especially for Sharon
by composers from Three Continents. Boohoo all right, thank you

(07:55):
for joining me today. I hope you heard something that inspires,
that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your
own life. This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey, all
of you out there, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything
else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

(08:19):
or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me
an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.
I look forward to hearing from you