Concept

The Processing Series began with a prompt: write a piece for voice that processes trauma and promotes recovery and wholeness. Inspired by the book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, as well as personal stories, new pieces of music were commissioned that started with the aftermath of trauma and unraveled the complex imprint on the body, communication, and daily life.

Trauma, sometimes a fixed incident in time, is an experience that evolves within oneself over a lifetime. The Processing Series embraces the ever-morphing relationship of a person to their traumatic memory. Each concert in the series (cut short by COVID) zoomed in on one experience, acknowledging the vast ways that trauma impacts a life.

Thank You

National Sawdust and the Ellis L. Phillips Foundation provided major support for this project, without which it could not have happened. Thank you.

Additional support came from many individuals, as well as New Music USA. Additionally, all artists involved offered their hearts and souls to this work, which was often challenging in subject matter (trauma and sexual violence) as well as process (making a brand-new show). I am so grateful to dozens of supporters and collaborators who made this possible. Putting my experience through my voice, into music, was such an impactful and life-changing experience.

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have shared my story, to heal, and to grow.

Performance Trailers

The first show, More Beautiful Than Words Can Say, focused on the non-verbal aspect of trauma. Through many pieces that used word fragments, the show explored the physical reality of PTSD through music. Osnat Netzer’s Philomela, commissioned for the series, played with sand as a metaphor for trauma. The concert concluded with one conclusive utterance: No, by Caleb Burhans, where the word no transforms into a melancholy but expressive aria.

The second show, A Barely Arching Bridge, focused on relationships between two people: you and your mind; you and your abuser; you and a therapist; you and a friend; you and your abandoned self. A red ribbon laid across the stage became a memory; a measure of distance; a bridge; a rescue rope; guts or memories spilling out; a choice of empowerment; binding; and pliable freedom. Eve Beglarian’s commission, She Gets to Decide, portrays a conversation between victim and abuser in which the victim takes control and transforms her language, ending in the words “leave your pain here.”

For full videos from the shows, please visit my Vimeo page: vimeo.com/lucydhegrae

Interviews

Presentations

I am geeked to have connected with Dr. Kevin Becker to discuss the science of Restorative Narrative, or how telling stories through performance heals and integrates traumatic memories. Please watch my keynote speech from Indian University’s initial Music & Trauma conference, and my and Kevin’s workshop below. We were also happy to present at the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC)’s conference in Atlanta, October 2021.

In my keynote speech, I mention some additional materials like my talk with composer Eve Beglarian and some slides, which you can view at the link below.

Keynote Talk Materials