The David Ott Lab for Music and Health

10/06/2026

Interested in a career in music therapy? Join us for Music Therapy Day at Montclair State University!

Learn about our undergraduate and graduate programs, meet faculty, see video examples of music therapy in practice, and tour the John J. Cali School of Music, included the David Ott Lab for Music and Health.

November 5, 2026
9:45 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Leshowitz Recital Hall, Chapin Hall
Free; registration required. Scan QR code.

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10/02/2026

Celebrating Masiel Rodriquez-Vars and the community that she brings together! Last night’s “Welcoming Newcomers: Connection & Gratitude” brought Montclair Board of Education members, local principals, volunteers, MFEE students, and community partners together to celebrate two years of welcoming and supporting newcomer students and families.

Masiel brings extraordinary generosity and dedication to her work as MFEE’s Executive Director. From building partnerships to handling the countless details that keep programs going, she puts so much of herself into supporting students and families. We are grateful to work alongside her.

It is because of Masiel that this wonderful team has come together to make Los hilos que nos unen (The Threads That Connect Us) a reality! We presented the work we have done collectively over the past two years, and where we are heading! Thank you, Masiel, and the entire MFEE team, for all you do!

Pictured from right to left: Michael Viega (John J. Cali School of Music and David Ott Lab, Montclair State University); Tim Anagnostis (Professor and MSU CLaSE Fellow); Masiel Rodriquez-Vars (Executive Director, MFEE); Antonella Calarota-Ninman (Director, CLaSE, Montclair State University); and Lisa Brenner (Drew University).

10/01/2026

We are getting there…still working, but now getting to play a little too!

We’re really honored to be working with Trevor New, professor in EPD at Berklee, electro-acoustic violist, composer, and technologist, to help bring his applications from his computer onto ours!

Piano Hands is just one of his many creations. It maps a person’s movements on Zoom to musical sounds and visuals, allowing them generate pitches, go up and down scales and change the volume with ease (and without having to download anything on their end). While similar applications exist, what makes this especially unique, and exciting for music therapy, is how it’s designed for a second person to improvise right alongside the person moving, whether on Zoom or in person. That relational aspect opens up so many possibilities for making music together.

We’re still working through the many tiny details and programming issues that come with getting an application running in a new computer environment. Once those pieces are in place, we’ll work with music therapy students and professionals across a variety of health care settings to hear how this might be relevant to their work. Their experiences and ideas will help shape an interactive, relational, improvisational application for Zoom, with possibilities for music therapy telehealth and new forms of creative collaboration!

Even in this basic setup, I had fun creating some live loops in Logic and improvising with it myself! Like our Cultural Identity Audio-Biography (CIAB) work, this project reflects the Ott Lab’s commitment to exploring music technologies that center relational, aesthetic, and cultural experiences in music therapy. Trevor shares these values, as musicality and relationship are at the core of his design!
John J. Cali School of Music MSU MTSO Montclair State University Music Therapy

09/29/2026

We are excited to be working with students from Buzz Aldrin Middle School and Montclair High School students working at Terry’s Serendipity Cafe for our Threads of Connection program with Montclair State U CLaSE, supporting Latine newcomers through music and performance. Students will be supporting youth from MFEE creating and recording their music and vice versa, building an ecology of support through music throughout our community.

09/24/2026

Asian and Asian American artists and music communities have helped shape DJ Culture, from Filipino American mobile DJ crews and turntablism to bhangra club nights, q***r Asian nightlife, and contemporary electronic music.

These histories were foundational to our Cultural Identity Audio-Biography (CIAB) program, developed with Purdue University’s Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center (Purdue AAARCC).

Through DJing, 17 Asian American adolescents explored their developing cultural identities, challenged harmful racialized stereotypes, and created musical narratives of past, present, and future.

From our forthcoming chapter, “Improvising with the Frequencies: DJ’ing Cultural Identity Audio-Biographies (CIAB),” in The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Music Therapy, by Michael Viega, Pamela K. Sari, and Stewart Chang Alexander.

Photo credits (slide order):

1. Rob Davidson, David Ott Lab for Music and Health.
2. Filipino American DJ scene: archival photograph courtesy Shortkut, via KQED.
3. DJ Qbert, Mix Master Mike, and Shortkut: courtesy Alex Aquino, via KQED.
4. DJ Rekha: djrekha.com
5. Bubble_T q***r Asian nightlife: Them magazine, “Bubble T Nightlife.”
6. Yaeji: pitchfork.com
7. ZHU: FifthLegend, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
8. AAARCC team: Michael Viega.

Purdue AAARCC John J. Cali School of Music MSU MTSO Montclair State University Music Therapy Michael Viega

09/17/2026

Comprovisation is the central idea of this chapter. It describes music-making in which pre-existing materials and structures coexist with spontaneous decisions made during performance.

DJing makes this especially easy to hear. Songs may already exist, but how they are selected, sequenced, layered, looped, transitioned, filtered, and transformed can remain open in the moment. Within a CIAB, comprovisation happens in the music structures that shape the narrative and in how the sound itself is shaped.

For music therapy, this opens up a way of thinking beyond composition and improvisation as separate methods. In a CIAB, structure and spontaneity can exist together as identity is explored through an unfolding musical process.

These ideas are at the center of our forthcoming chapter, “Improvising with the Frequencies: DJ’ing Cultural Identity Audio-Biographies (CIAB),” co-authored with Pamela K. Sari Purdue AAARCC and Stewart Chang Alexander (Public Health Purdue University), in The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Music Therapy.
References
Butler, M. J. (2014). Playing with something that runs: Technology, improvisation, and composition in DJ and laptop performance. Oxford University Press.

Dale, M. (2008). What is comprovisation? [Master’s thesis, Mills College].

Dudas, R. (2010). “Comprovisation”: The various facets of composed improvisation within interactive performance systems. Leonardo Music Journal, 20, 29–31.

Viega, M. (2023). Queering the sonic episteme within music therapy using digital music technologies. In C. A. Lee (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of q***r and trans music therapy (pp. 459–480). Oxford University Press.

09/14/2026

SHIFTING FREQUENCIES: A theoretical mixtape that grounds the Cultural Identity Audio-Biography (CIAB).

I created this mix to express some of the musical themes behind the CIAB rather than explanation alone. It moves through five ideas: transformation of identity; collective belonging, joy, and resistance; rupture and pressure; reclaiming your own narratives; and rebuilding new worlds to explore.

I also mixed in moments from I Saw the TV Glow, Steven Universe, Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and X-Men ’97 (some of my favorite things!) as moments of personal reflection and reflexivity.

The mix was created in one take, improvising with transitions, effects, frequencies, and the relationships between tracks.

Swipe through the themes. Scan the final slide to listen.

Because theory can be art, and art can be theory.

Photo / image credits:
Slide 1: Michael Viega playing DJ controller at Purdue AAARCC — Purdue AAARCC
Slide 2: Laurel Halo — Robert Herrick / Spike Art Magazine; Arca — Playback; SOPHIE — Vogue México
Slide 3: Octo Octa — Red Bull; Honey Dijon — The Standard; DJ Sprinkles — Red Bull Music Academy Daily
Slide 4: NKISI — The Wire; DJ Haram — Resident Advisor
Slide 5: DJ Spooky — Second Inversion
Slide 6: Yaeji — David Brandon Geeting / The FADER; DJ /rupture — The Wire
Slide 7: X-Men ’97 — Marvel Studios; Buffy the Vampire Slayer — 20th Century Fox Television; I Saw the TV Glow — A24; Twin Peaks — promotional image via Fotogramas/Hearst; Steven Universe — Cartoon Network
Slide 8: Michael Viega working with a student at Purdue AAARCC — Purdue AAARCC

Note: This carousel was created in Canva using real historical/archival photographs and text drawn from my own research and writing. Canva includes AI-assisted editing features for Instagram posts, which might trigger Meta to display “AI Info” label. No AI-generated imagery or text was used.

05/12/2026

A really wonderful collaboration between Center for Latino Heritage and Spanish Language Excellence, Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, and Music Therapy Program at John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State. It was a moving evening of community, performance, and joy as resistance. Three 2nd year music therapy undergraduate students, Monica Rodriquez, Giana Pellegrini, and Bella Miller, supported youth who participated in this program.

As the academic year came to a close, CLaSE concluded its programming with an event that reflected the heart of its mission: creating spaces where stories, creativity, healing, and community can meet. Rise Up: Overcoming Challenges and Finding Inner Strength was more than a performance. It was a col...