Rachel Quirbach is an enthusiastic musician. A lifelong accordionist, she is employing her skills as an accordionist in her first full-time position as Rachel shares, “Activity Therapist at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (yes, a supermax prison) under the Massachusetts Department of Correction. As many of you know, I’ve dreamed of working in the corrections sphere for quite some time now – especially thanks to my experiences at the Maricopa Reentry Center and the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program. I’m so excited to put all of my music therapy knowledge to work at this facility and soak up even more knowledge through my experiences as an Activity Therapist! Here’s to supporting ex-offenders in their wellness, recovery, and reentry.”

Rachel has actively promoted awareness of the accordion within the music therapy and collegiate musician communities by incorporating the instrument into her practice and advocating for it via her social media. Rachel has advocated for accordion and music therapy at the local, regional, and national level, most notably through her program “Building Hope Through Music”, which brings music therapy informed interventions into the corrections system. Rachel looks forward to bringing more live music experiences into the correctional sphere in the years to come.

1. How long have you been playing accordion?
I have been playing accordion since I turned 6 years old – so over 17 years now! I actually started piano lessons first (on my 4th birthday) since I wasn’t considered “big enough” at the time to start on the accordion.

2. What got you started playing the accordion? Who were your teachers?
I started playing the accordion largely because my mom used to play the accordion when she was younger, and she had started me from the age of four on piano lessons with her former teacher: Donna Michael (public school music teacher and creator of the Miguel School of Music in Dracut, Massachusetts). When I was large enough (age 6), I was finally allowed to pick up accordion for the first time! Donna was my one and only accordion teacher from the first day I picked up the instrument all the way until I moved to Arizona for college. The accordion was such a unique instrument, and got me a lot of positive attention in school and in the community, so I stuck with it! I was also highly motivated by the annual ATAM (Accordion Teachers’ Association of Massachusetts) Festival, which I attended every single April. For my entire life, the accordion has been tied to my personal identity, as many people know me as “the accordion player”.

3. What made you decide to pursue a career in music therapy?
I actually found the field of music therapy by accident at first – I was searching through a long list of majors when applying for college, and happened to just click on “music” in general to see what was out there. Alphabetically, “Arizona State University” was one of the first schools to pop up on my search, and under their list of majors was “music therapy”. From a brief Google Search of “music therapy”, I found that – in very broad terms – music therapy was a combination of music, medicine, psychology, and service to others.

Although my background in solo, competitive playing was strong, when it came time to choose a career path I strayed from music performance and searched for a service-driven field. From my many practice performances at a large number of assisted living facilities and church events growing up, I noticed how much joy I could bring to other people by playing my accordion – there was something more to music that I did not fully understand at the time, nor do I now. When I learned of a profession that tied music to helping others directly with particular medical and psychological ailments, I knew that I had found my ideal career choice: music therapy.

I decided to stay in the field of music therapy because I continue to understand and appreciate the power of music and healing more and more each day. From a culmination of research projects, service endeavors, and clinical experiences, I have never once been bored with music therapy, and instead I am constantly learning something new every single day.

4. How do you actually use the accordion in your therapy sessions?
In my music therapy sessions, I use the accordion mostly for relaxation and songwriting experiences. For relaxation, I improvise music on the accordion that matches the relaxation script and/or guided meditation script I am using. The music I create in those scenarios follows the content of what I am saying in order to enhance the relaxation experience. For songwriting, I use the accordion to accompany myself and/or my clients singing during group and/or individual songwriting experiences. Often in my groups, participants will be guided to write song lyrics that express some aspect of themselves based on the theme given during the group; having the opportunity to hear their words come to life through song and/or through a group signing experience provides a significant amount of therapeutic validation, confidence, and satisfaction.

5. Why did you decide to join AAA?
I decided to join the AAA because I am incredibly passionate about advocating for the accordion in our community, specifically to young musicians, and this passion aligns with many of the current goals of the AAA. I also really want to help encourage young accordionists to continue to play the accordion and demonstrate that professional performance is not the only avenue that you can take if you want to keep playing. For kids today, it is really difficult to fit music in along with all the other general education requirements, and even then accessibility to the accordion is still a major barrier. As a relatively young accordionist myself, I can bring a different perspective to the AAA and help add to the outreach the AAA is doing.

6. What are the benefits of belonging to AAA?
Belonging to the AAA means having a reliable resource to remain to connected and aware of accordion-related events at a national and even international level. By attending AAA festivals, you can connect with accordionists from all over the world and revive your passion for playing the accordion and improve upon your musicianship!

7. What would you like to bring to AAA or see happen in the future with AAA?
I would like to help the AAA develop a stronger social media presence, and then to use social media platforms to advocate for accordionists all over the world. The AAA is in a unique position to help advocate for and connect local accordion clubs from coast to coast, and to help voice various areas of progress and innovation with the accordion to the general public. In the future with the AAA, I would like to see more encouragement of young accordionists (especially in non-competitive settings), increased collaboration and involvement with musicians of different instruments and voices, improved communication and connection between accordion clubs across the country, and increased creative advocacy of the accordion as an instrument.

8. Any ideas on how to involve more young people?
I am excited to say that as a AAA Board, we are constantly working together to think up new and exciting ways to involve more young people! In brief, a few of my ideas on this are increasing the quality social media presence of the accordion (that way young people are exposed to the wide variety of musical things the accordion can do), promoting the accessibility of the accordion itself (as accordions are difficult to try out for a lot of kids, especially if they are not included in the general music classrooms), and finding ways to make the accordion fun for young audiences (i.e. playing music young people enjoy listening to, as opposed to sticking strictly to the accordion vernacular).

9. Do you have a favorite piece to play on the accordion and if so what is the title and why?
Currently, I do not have a favorite piece to play on the accordion! However, I do currently have a preference for free bass pieces (in order to improve my skills on that system) and for pieces that involve playing with other musicians (as I love playing with other musicians).

10. Any accordionist you admire or recommend we listen to? … no obligation to answer if you are uncomfortable with the question.
No comment on the “admired accordionist” question 😉 But I highly recommend going on social media and searching for accordion groups or “#accordion” to see what is out there and recent! One of my favorite things to do during my free time is search on Instagram “#accordion” for videos of people from all over the world, of all different experience and skill levels, playing accordion! It’s always refreshing and inspiring me to see so many different kinds people playing the accordion.

11. What kind of creative patterns, routines, or rituals do you have in practicing ?
When practicing, I like to experiment a lot with phrasing of different sections (or “chunks”) of music that I am working on. I find it fun to make up stories and play the dialogue of my stories, which helps me really think through my musical options and choose what I think sounds best. Something else I do to improve my overall musicianship is to pretend that I am playing as a different instrumentalist or vocalist; so for example, if I’m pretending to play the piece as a trumpet player, I’ll work on being mindful on when the trumpet player would have to breathe and what notes logistically build up to one another.

12. What’s the best advice you received about playing music/accordion?
The best piece of advice I’ve received about playing music (specifically the accordion) is to play from and with your heart. Technique and virtuosity are important, but without heart and emotion music loses its meaning. I’d rather make a few technical mistakes and connect emotionally with my listeners than play flawlessly and come across as robotic.

Also, another great piece of advice I received to improve overall musicianship is to listen to other musicians play the piece and/or style of music you are playing. For us accordion players this is especially important, as not all songs (or even genres) have quality recordings of accordionists playing for us to reference. There is so much that we can learn from listening to other musicians, even if their instrument of choice isn’t the accordion.

13. Any thoughts which you would like to share with www.accordionusa.com readers about you, your future aspirations, thoughts on the future of the accordion?
a) I’d love to share with readers that music therapy and accordion mix incredibly well, and to keep it as an open option for young accordionists to consider growing up. In general, we need to do everything we can to encourage young accordionists and give them opportunities to be featured in a positive light.

b) My long-term professional goal is to develop and implement my own music therapy-based program in the corrections system at a national level. I want to make sure that persons in state hospitals, prisons, community reentry centers, and victim shelters are exposed to quality music therapy services because victims and perpetrators of crime are often the most overlooked persons in our communities, yet are some of the most important people in our society to reach out to and serve. Through the accessible, welcoming medium of music, so much positive change can be made in these people’s lives. However, successfully advocating for such a program can be incredibly difficult without the credentials or real-world experience to back up its creator.

c) I think the accordion has a bright future!! There are a lot of accordionists working tirelessly to advocate for the accordion worldwide, and many people willing to try out the accordion and treat the instrument with respect. We will have to constantly work to find new and current ways of advocating for our instrument, and as a result we will continue to expand and creatively innovate the possibilities of the accordion.

14. Education Credentials, Honors, Awards, etc.
-I am a Board Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC)
-I was the recipient of the Barrett Honors College Outstanding Research Award in 2018 for my “Building Hope Through Music” project
-I was a 2018 Mouer Award Recipient (graduated from ASU in 4 years with a 4.00 GPA)
-I received the 2017 STARS Undergraduate Music Therapy Student Award (from the American Music Therapy Association for Students, AMTAS)
-I was awarded Arizona State University’s 2017 Outstanding Music Therapy Pre-Clinical Student Award
-I received the 2017 ASU School of Music Presser Foundation Award

15. A Note on How I Found Forensic Music Therapy & My “Building Hope Through Music” Program:
For my undergraduate degree, I attended Arizona State University – an institution known for its large-scale service and innovation. It was there that I found my passion population within the field of music therapy: incarcerated persons. I discovered forensic music therapy almost by accident during my Introduction to Music Therapy course with Professor Robin Rio. During that first semester, we students were instructed to read all but two chapters of the Davis, Gfeller, and Thaut “Introduction to Music Therapy” textbook. One night in my dorm, I happened to turn to one of the two chapters we were not required to read and started reading the chapter for fun. It just so happened to be the chapter on music therapy in correctional psychiatry. I remember being astounded at the long list of goal areas music therapy addressed for the population coupled by the lack of research reflected in the textbook, especially compared to the other populations covered. From that point on, a spark was lit within me to learn as much as I possibly could about music therapy in forensic settings – and about incarceration in general. In order to help me with this endeavor, I added on a Minor Certificate in Criminology and Criminal Justice so I could learn through the perspective of the criminal legal system as well as the mental health system.

While in attendance at Arizona State University, I was constantly reminded to think outside the box and find a way through the university’s resources to make my dreams become a reality. Thanks to this encouragement and flexibility, I was able to research, conceive, propose, and implement my own music therapy-based program, named “Building Hope Through Music”, at a nearby minimum-security prison in Phoenix, Arizona. From September 2017 to May 2018, I volunteered my time for six one-hour groups per week – which encompassed all residents at the Maricopa Reentry Center. During my groups at that facility, I utilized music therapy techniques including lyric analysis, songwriting, singing, musical games, and guided visualization in order to improve self-awareness, provide a medium for self-expression, increase teamwork and collaboration, promote relaxation, facilitate emotional processing and awareness, and improve tolerance of non-preferred activities in participants. This volunteer experience was unlike any other. In total, I ended up seeing over 400 different inmates on the course of my 800+ group hours at that facility. From my experience with that facility, I knew for certain that I wanted to pursue a career incorporating music therapy in correctional settings. From my experiences with the men I worked with, I was motivated to study hard, work even harder, and advocate until I find a way to make more music therapy programs like this happen in even more facilities.

The AAA is pleased to encourage young accordionists to become involved in accordion associations to assist in promoting the accordion. Rachel is the youngest person to be on the Executive Board of the AAA serving as Secretary as of January 1, 2019.

For further information: rachelquirbachy@gmail.com