Halpern, Steven (Barry)
Halpern, Steven (Barry)
Halpern, Steven (Barry), American composer, performer, and producer; b. N.Y., April 18, 1947. He played trumpet and guitar in jazz and rock bands as a youth, and in the late 1960s began to explore the effects of music on the listener. He studied at the State Univ. of N.Y. at Buffalo (B.A., 1969), Lone Mountain Coll. in San Francisco (M.A., 1973), and Sierra Nevada Univ. in Barcelona (Ph.D., 1977). He became absorbed in musical therapy, and developed a study curriculum of healing through music. In 1976 he began distributing his music to bookshops and health food stores, creating what has become Sound Rx Productions, a distribution company, which promotes therapeutic methods in music. He is a pioneer of New Age music, particularly the variety that is intended to be therapeutic; many of his recordings include subliminal suggestions for physical and mental improvement (sleep enhancement, sexual ecstasy, safe driving, weight loss, flourishing plants, self esteem, substance abuse, etc.). Among his many solo and collaborative recordings, both audio and video, are Spectrum Suite (1975), Dawn (1981), Radiance (1988), Accelerating Learning (1991), Higher Ground (1992), and Music for Sound Healing (1999). From 1986 to 1988 he ed. New Frontier Magazine. He also publ. Tuning the Human Instrument (Belmont, Calif., 1978) and Sound Health (N.Y, 1985).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire