This is the first in a series of music courses organized and conducted by Stephanie Chase, Artistic Director of the Music of the Spheres Society. Each course features a guest artist, who will explore the creative process as it relates to his or her musical work. The Haunting Melody is the title of a book which contains some valuable insights into the life and music of Gustav Mahler. It was written by Theodore Reik and explores the area of psychohistory, particularly relating to Mahler's Symphony
No. 2.

Edward Applebaum will begin the presentation with an explanation of the creative process itself, based upon his experience as a composer and as someone who has thought about this process from a psychoanalytic point of view. Moving beyond Reik's book, he will offer insight into a different approach to the Mahler symphony, based upon music rather than biography.

The second part of the presentation will include additional excerpts from Mahler's music, exploring connections between all of Mahler's orchestral works. Time permitting, Dr. Applebaum will present excerpts from two of the compositions— "Landscape of Dreams" and "Dirt Music"—which he composed for Stephanie Chase, and which illustrate several of the points he will have discussed.

Edward Applebaum is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is on the faculty of the Honors College of the University of Houston, where he teaches Psychology and the Arts and The Psychology of Humor. He has taught composition at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, the Edith Cowan University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Florida State University. A recipient of the Kennedy Center's Friedheim Award in Music Composition, Dr. Applebaum also holds a particular scholarly interest in the subject of psychotherapy and the arts, and teaches at the Jung Center in Houston.

Stephanie Chase is a violinist who has performed as soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. She is also Artistic Director and co-founder of the Music of the Spheres Society, which is dedicated to exploring the links between music, philosophy and the sciences, and teaches violin at New York University's Steinhardt School. In her spare time, she writes music arrangements and studies Stradivari violins and the "music of the spheres."

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