Dear AACORN friends and colleagues,
I hope you are enjoying the holidays and looking forward to
the New Year.
I would like to introduce Linda Ippolito. I first met Linda
this past fall when we were both artist-in-residence at The Banff
Centre. Linda brings her extensive background as a world class musician
and a talented lawyer to one of the world's greatest challenges: global
peace making. Her thesis, which I have just had the privilege to read,
explains why collaborative music making, and especially vocal choirs and
ensembles can support peace building and conflict resolution, even in
some of the most tension-filled areas of the world. To say that her work
is breaking new ground is an understatement. Moreover, she is a
delightful human being - someone you will enjoy meeting because of who
she is (as well as for what she knows and what she is doing). Let me
give you a bit of her formal background:
Linda Ippolito is a classical pianist, litigation lawyer, alternative
dispute resolution practitioner, and teacher.
She studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and the
University of Toronto's Faculty of Music. Throughout the 1980's Linda
distinguished herself at national and international competitions,
participating, most notably, in the Tchaikovsky International
Competition in Moscow, the Sydney International Piano Competition in
Australia, and the Montreal International Piano Competition in Canada.
She has performed throughout North American and Europe as a soloist,
vocal collaborator and duo pianist, and continues to actively perform.
As a Toronto-based litigation lawyer since 1994, with a practice now
focused primarily in family and estates law, Linda has argued before
every level of Court in Ontario and before various administrative
tribunals. She is also a certified collaborative family practitioner
and mediator, and has taught a number of subjects, including negotiation
theory and practice, to law students, lawyers and non-legal
professionals.
Her passion lies in the intersection between music and peace building.
Linda has recently completed her Master of Laws Degree in Alternative
Dispute Resolution at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Her
major research paper explores collaborative vocal music-making as an
innovative tool in conflict resolution and peace building. It proposes
group vocal music-making - whether the format is choir, circle singing,
chanting, or improvised sounding - as an effective social contact
vehicle through which opposing groups can come together in a cooperative
activity to address the past, experience the present, and the explore
the possibilities of a shared future. Through the universal language of
music and the ritual of group music-making, people can work together to
build sustainable peace, and achieve the conflict resolution goals of
reconciliation and healing.
It is Ippolito's goal to apply the model in a variety of formats for
different purposes, working in partnership with professionals from other
disciplines. The model is also a powerful team-building and leadership
development vehicle through which a number of objectives can be achieved
alongside conflict resolution and peace building goals.
I would like to welcome Linda as a member of AACORN
All my best, Nancy
Nancy J Adler
McGill University
Desautels Faculty of Management
1001 rue Sherbrooke ouest
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1G5
tel: 1-514-398-4031
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