About Serena’s Prelude:
Serena’s Prelude, the first track on Serena’s Garden, is a progressive relaxation exercise, one of the simplest and most effective relaxation techniques. Created by Dr. Peter Desberg, a practicing clinical psychologist and professor, this exercise gracefully and gently guides you into a looser, more relaxed mindset with an effective and easy breathing awareness technique.

One of the great advantages of learning a progressive relaxation technique like Serena’s Prelude, is the ease with which you can apply it almost anywhere, anytime. Whether you’re waiting in an airport, or just trying to relax, ease headache pain and melt away tension at home or work, you’ll find this progressive relaxation technique helpful and easy to apply. The music of Serena’s Garden is the ideal accompaniment for relaxation and stress-relief, spa treatments such as massage, facials and aromatherapy as well as meditation, yoga or any of the healing arts. Serena’s Prelude provides a great “entre” to a more relaxing and enjoyable mind-body-spirit experience.

About Serena’s Garden:
Stephen’s music enhances relaxation by offering a lush, soothing collection of compositions designed to slow the rhythms of the body and the nervous system while entertaining the listener with beautiful melodies and instruments chosen from a pan-cultural palette. This is music designed to unleash the imagination, quiet the mind and create a deep sense of well-being

MUSICAL INSPIRATION
“There are really no formulas for creating something that’s relaxing. I think that a composer can find a place inside where, in writing something, you actually feel the experience of letting go and relaxing or you feel the experience of opening to a space that’s beyond thought. Maybe it’s a question of identifying that place in oneself creatively and then expressing it musically.”

“I have always been in love with music, in love with the experience of making music. My father wrote concert and chamber music and my mother was a violinist and dancer. Music had a special place in our life; it was revered and it was a special kind of treat to be enjoying music. . . Every music project that I take on has a special challenge; I got interested in doing relaxation music because I’m intrigued with that natural meeting place of being involved in a spiritual practice and thinking about healing myself first and then healing other people. SERENA’S GARDEN brings a lot of things together because in a way it’s an individualistic type of creative project but on the other hand, it’s intended very much to communicate with people in a very universal place.” –Stephen Cohn

About Peter Desberg, Ph.D:
Peter Desberg, who created the script for Serena’s Prelude, is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice and a professor at California State University where he coordinates an M.A. program in Educational Technology. The author of over a dozen published books, Peter’s popular book, No More Butterflies, has helped thousands of people deal with stagefright and performance anxiety. According to Peter, “self-esteem suffers greatly whenever your fears control you rather than you controlling your fears.” Besides music and classical guitar, which he plays, Peter’s other interests include tennis, the martial arts and the psychology of humor.

“Music is very powerful; I actively use music from SERENA’S GARDEN in my clinical psychology work such as with progressive relaxation training or as an accompani ment to meditation. Cognitively, I find it more satisfying than “cookie-cutter” new age music, yet it is still mellifluous, maintains my interest and helps my patients to focus and clear their minds without being bored.” –Peter Desberg, Ph.D, author, professor of clinical psychology, licensed clinical psychiatrist

STEPHEN COHN Q & A
How did you get your start in music?
I was born into music. My father was an attorney who wrote concert music, chamber music, as a hobby all of his life, but very seriously, like every spare minute so I think I probably first heard music when I was still in the womb -- hearing my father sit at the piano and write this sort of Bartok-ian chamber music. My mother was a violinist and a dancer, and my sister has a Ph.D. in flute from Juilliard and USC so I was always surrounded with very good music. Music had a special place in our life it was revered and it was a special kind of treat to be enjoying music. I always found it to be kind of a thrill. I remember as a kid being taken to musicals and just having magical experiences with it. And then as I began to play music which was first on the clarinet and later on the guitar, the idea of actually being part of the process of making music was very very exciting, a special experience like nothing else. It brought a kind of fulfillment that nothing else brought.

Did you play music together as a family?
Yes, there were instances where we played together in various combinations. My mom and dad used to play piano and violin duets which was a whole ritual.

You have composed concert music as well as music for films. How are the two processes different?
Every project has a special challenge musically. When I'm writing a piece of concert music, I'm being called upon to do a highly individualistic thing -- sit in a room by myself and come up with something that hopefully advances the state of the art, expands the musical language in some way or expands a concept of what music is. This is particularly true in this last century when the musical language just kind of exploded -- a lot of things happened in the concert hall that would not have been thought of as music in the 19th century. But the big difference is if you're called on to write something for a film it's a highly collaborative thing. The team is there in support of a director's vision. The director is in charge of maybe several hundred artists, and he's called upon to forge all of these individual talents into a single vision.

Composers are trained in the old tradition of studying very hard as an individual and then being very disciplined and digging deeply into your own creativity and coming up with something that comes from a very deep place. And to be able to then make that shift from listening to your own inner creative voice to listening to somebody else's voice directing you -- it seems to sometimes violate everything you've learned about being a composer, being a creative person. And yet it can be very rewarding. I've found that the two things nourish each other in a very important way.

As a composer, what is your creative process like?
I was always in love with music, in love with the experience of making music. And as I started writing, I became fascinated with the question: Where does creativity come from? That started me on a path of exploration and I came across Carl Jung with his idea of the Collective Unconscious. That was an exciting idea because there's the thought that there's a place you can touch in yourself and if you really reach it you may be touching other people in the same place. So for me I think that was a good jumping off place as an artist. That also led me to the idea of doing things like meditating and getting involved in a spiritual practice that would open up a greater understanding of it. So, my creative process -- to answer the question -- is based on the idea of digging into a place in myself that I think will also reach other people.

How did you get interested in composing relaxation music?
There is a natural meeting place of being involved in a spiritual practice and thinking about healing oneself first and then healing other people. Combine that with using what I had worked on most in my life of speaking to other people, or reaching other people -- through my music. This idea of wanting actually to reach out to serve other people -- hopefully even heal other people -- with music is a very inspiring idea. The idea of doing an album like SERENA'S GARDEN brings a lot of things together because it's a very individualistic creative endeavor yet on the other hand it's intended very much to communicate with people in a very universal place.

People involved in healing and nurturing professionals who use At Peace Music with their work often say the same thing. It's interesting to hear that healing is a part of your musical equation, too.
I love the idea that my music can be used by people involved in healing other people or just to help people reach a place inside themselves where they can feel some calmness and some peace.

Listeners often describe how SERENA'S GARDEN helps to create an evocative mindset like peering into infinite space. It helps their minds wander in a more relaxed free association, more Jungian mindset. Was it your goal to enable people to reach parts of their inner consciousness that they basically have to compartmentalize and ignore during their linear lives?
It's wonderful to create something that allows people to feel energized and relaxed at the same time. Creating something evocative that makes the listener think back on wonderful places they've been to or people you've met . . I think of it as "classical New Age" music. Because the classical part of it gives it a kind of a depth from a standpoint of physics -- music that's written according to good sound voice leading and principles of resonance and harmony and so forth has a kind of a depth to it, and maybe adds a timeless quality because it references music from earlier periods as well as using harmonies from this century.

There's a technological aspect to it, in the sense of using very slow tempos or changing tempos perhaps helps to slow down the heartbeat, the pulse. A lot of it is just intuitive feeling that these melodies, these harmonies will have an effect on people that will help them to calm and introspect

What makes for good relaxation music?
There are really no formulas for creating something that's relaxing. I think that a composer can find a place inside where, in writing something, you actually feel the experience of letting go and relaxing or you feel the experience of opening to a space that's beyond thought. And that's an intuitive experience. So I think maybe it's a question of identifying that place in oneself creatively and then expressing it musically.

You use an interesting palette of sounds in your compositions. Are there some instruments that you especially gravitate towards for music for healing and relaxation?
Yes... I would say that instruments that speak with a soft, soulful voice are the ones that I would gravitate to for this music. Ultimately, it's the essence of the music itself that speaks. It's about the intention and the focus of the composer to really touch that place. Using silence effectively is also important. John Cage wrote a book called SOUND AND SILENCE in which he makes it very clear that music is about both. It's about silence and the balance between sound and silence. Sound is defined by the silence around it. So silence is a very important element. When there is a goal in the music to do something like relax or excite then the use of that balance becomes very critical. Clutter in music often comes about from a lack of faith in the idea itself. If the musical idea speaks then it doesn't need a lot of extra musical “filler” or clutter.

SERENA'S GARDEN feels like a journey -- we don't know exactly where the music is leading but listeners find it very relaxing. Could you comment on that?
When music is working well that's one of the greatest experiences -- you're taken on a trip. And hopefully the music will give you the confidence that this is a trip you want to continue going on so you surrender to it. Giving people the comfort and the confidence to surrender to it and go where it goes and enjoy the journey as they're going -- and hopefully even experience something they haven't experienced before.

Are you inspired by any sacred music? You seem to create a feeling of entering a sacred place in your music.
I have been inspired by sacred music. My intention is to offer people an environment where they can feel safe. There are so many elements in the process that have to do with that: composition, the choice of instrumental sounds, mixing in the studio, each contributes to a feeling of space and dimension in the music

What projects have you worked on that were particularly fun to work on?
There are a couple that come to mind that were particularly fun and fulfilling. One was a Lily Tomlin Christmas Special called EDITH ANN'S CHRISTMAS. It was a half hour animated special in which Edith Ann was the main character...

Edith Ann... that little girl sitting in the big chair?
Yes, this was a special Christmas episode that had to do with Edith Ann's family. So I had the great joy of working with Lily Tomlin and an animator named Bob Kurtz. And they did this very funny, very edgy, very artistic thing and it was great fun to be around that kind of creativity and be a part of that.

Another one was a show I won an Emmy for, it was a documentary called DYING WITH DIGNITY which was a one hour documentary on euthanasia -- very serious subject matter. There was a challenge to write music for that show that was moving without being morbid. I wrote for a nine piece chamber ensemble and worked with really wonderful musicians. It was one of the first shows that I conducted in the studio.

Another one that comes to mind was having my string quartet --my first string quartet -- recorded by the Ardini Quartet, one of the really great string quartets. They recorded the string quartet in a church -- All Saints, on the outskirts of London, a church that has a beautiful, natural reverberation.

Your music helps people deal with the stresses of life. Do you like writing this kind of music?
I do, I love it. One of the wonderful things about this project is, it's a collaboration, in a sense, but on the other hand I get to sit in a room and write music that I really like that feels appropriate. And the real excitement of it, the real depth of the experience is the feeling of touching other people with the music and supplying something that may actually really be needed at this time.