Organization founder and Executive Director Dr. Martha Summa-Chadwick has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas and is a Fellow of the
Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy; she is uniquely qualified to direct this
organization, having enjoyed successful careers as concert pianist, teacher, and
Information Technologist. Additional details and resume can be found on her personal website, www.marthasumma.com.
Inspiration for the founding of the organization occurred many years ago when
Martha was working with a four year old non-verbal piano student with autism.
Attempting to teach the student via normal piano pedagogical methods was
completely ineffective, but when it was discovered that the student had
tremendous potential to learn via the computer, all pedagogical methods were
switched to focus on the computer. The student learned to read music utilizing notational software on the computer, which led to being
able to play first a networked keyboard and then a stand-alone piano. As the student began
to play she would sing, which greatly helped to increase verbal capacity. She
was able to mainstream into a regular classroom in 2nd grade.
The power of bringing together the elements of music and computer technology
to assist children with autism was born in the idea of the creation of software
developed specifically for this purpose. Martha was able to pursue the idea after receiving training at Colorado State University in neuro music protocols.
