Brian Katz is a celebrated guitarist, pianist, recording artist, improviser, composer, and music educator. He knew at an early age that music was his calling. “I remember bursting into tears upon hearing Louis Armstrong sing on the Ed Sullivan show,” wrote Katz to Music Can Heal about his first cathartic experience with music when he was five years old. “I wanted to be Louis, imitating him throughout my early years in an effort, I suppose, to 'sweat with it all,' the joys, and whatever pained me.” Eight years later, at the age of 13, Katz began to teach guitar. He described it as “something inside of me drawn to sharing the beauty I was experiencing.” He has since become an internationally r
In August 2009, Donald Quan experienced a near-fatal heart arrhythmia while playing the keyboards on stage in Kitchener, Ontario. He was clinically dead for 17 minutes. When he came to, all Quan could think of was music. “Music was the first thing I thought of,” Quan, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer, recalls. “Remembering my childhood, I just wanted to play music.” With the help of musician friends, including Ron Korg and David Maracle, Quan went from being 95% disabled from the stroke to 50% disabled. “David managed to push his way into intensive care, explaining that he was my soul brother,” Quan explains, laughing. It worked. David Maracle, a native flautist and
