“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
INNER VOICE STUDIOS PHILOSOPHY
“The intricate pattern set up by a lifetime of individual experience could not ever be duplicated. It explains beyond all argument why never in the history of the Earth has one animal, one snowflake, one stone, one atom, ever been exactly the same as another.” -A.E. van Vogt
As a young girl, I could explain concepts in different ways for different people. When I taught my younger brother the rules to a game or helped him with his math or English homework, I learned how to appeal to the things he liked and understood (sports for instance) to help him comprehend concepts he found difficult. Just as the above quote implies, all individuals have different experiences and different ways of obtaining knowledge.
When I decided to become a teacher, I started to apply the above technique to my classroom. I noticed that if I took the time to understand a student’s interests and learning style, I could instill an interest in the subject I taught with considerable ease. Without that connection, the subject loses its luster and students are unable to grasp its relevance to their lives.
From the years of refining this teaching method in my classroom came the discovery that integrating music and songwriting into the teaching
of nearly any subject brought about remarkable results!
Over time, this has evolved beyond the classroom, into what has become my traveling workshop, Inner Voice. While I still use music and songwriting in my Composition classroom at Black Hills State University to drive home a variety of writing techniques I want them to learn, Inner Voice has taken this to a new level, as I go into schools and organizations such as treatment centers, Veterans facilities, correctional facilities, and onto Reservations to bring focus to a much deeper goal: helping others recognize and listen to their inner voice so that they can live their truest, authentic life.
That younger brother I helped to understand his homework took his life when he was 20 years old, 20 years ago this year. He died before he had the opportunity to discover his true gifts and to live his authentic life. My mission, my true path, is to use my gifts of music, writing, teaching, and mindfulness to help others who need help seeing their unique gifts and true paths. I believe that through my workshop, Inner Voice, I will reach many individuals in need of creative guidance back to themselves, and in my own unique way, help make the world a much better place.
KAT BAUM BIO
Singer, songwriter, and storyteller Kate Baum grew up in Dell Rapids, SD in a musical family. She began writing songs as a young girl and then performing around South Dakota until she received her MA in Linguistics, Composition, and Rhetoric from South Dakota State University in 2003. She then moved with her family to Alaska. There she taught literature and writing for 9 years and performed around the Kenai Peninsula. In August of 2012, they moved back to SD. After 2 years of teaching at Sturgis Brown H.S., Kate retired from teaching public school to pursue a career of Real Estate in the Black Hills. Alongside Real Estate, Kate is on the Roster for the South Dakota Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools and Communities Grant, using her expertise in writing, storytelling, teaching, and musical performance to inspire healing and transformation in herself and others. She also teaches Composition part time at Black Hills State University, and gives voice lessons to students at the Sturgis Center for the Arts. She performs for various community events both as a solo artist and with her musical trio, Alkali Run, she co-facilitates an annual women’s retreat, The Sounds of Healing, and she co-hosts a variety of special events that combine music, writing, yoga, and meditation. Most recently, she has combined all of this experience into a new business venture, a traveling workshop called Inner Voice, which combines music, writing, performance, meditation, and manifestation for living an authentic life.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My style developed from a combination of growing up singing gospel music in the church choir with my parents’ guitar group and listening to the folk and classic rock of their generation. In graduate school, I fell in love with the old English and Irish ballads and Bluegrass music. My songs stem from stories, some from long ago, some from now, but stories all the same. My performances, eclectic and rich with emotion and history, never fail to impact an audience. I have been performing my own music as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians since I was a young girl, and I continue to do so today with solo performances and shows with my musical trio, Alkali Run.
From this background, I create an enriching experience for those participating in my workshops. I have taught K to college students for almost 20 years now, and I have found that teaching writing and creativity through music is the ideal way to make students successful and open-minded. I have used my music, lyrics, performance, and storytelling to teach songwriting, poetry, creative writing, nonfiction, and history. I adapt my workshop to fit the needs of a any environment or demographic, tailoring the themes, songs I perform, and stories I share to fit the goals and objectives of the participants. The ability to adapt my workshop to any age comes from years of experience teaching, co-facilitating The Sounds of Healing women’s retreat in Ucross, WY, workshops at Veteran’s Homes, Senior Citizen Centers, Residential Treatment Centers for youth and adults, and many special events combining music, writing, yoga, & meditation.
My objective for an Inner Voice workshop is to give participants an opportunity to reveal their creativity and hear their own inner voice through the guided formation and blend of poetry, song lyrics, and musical performance. After being led through a series of writing activities and experiencing my performances, participants will work individually and in groups on writing techniques, elements of poetry, and the process & art of songwriting. After these exercises, experiencing & discussing examples, and working with one another to produce unique phrases and lines, participants will come away with an original song for me to put to music. The product of each workshop is a culminating performance of the original composition. I currently have one full-length album, Message of Song, but my future vision is to record an album compiling the original songs that have come out of each Inner Voice workshop.