My Music. My Story. Marianne Chalmers-Talkovski.

My Music. My Story. is one of Classical Music Indy’s initiatives to feature music, musicians, and music lovers in a fun way. This week we spoke with Marianne Chalmers-Talkovski, a licensed acupuncturist, about the importance of music in her life and in her work.

Marianne Chalmers-Talkovski: My Music. My Story.

Tell us about the work you do and how you involve music.

Specializing in women’s issues, sports medicine, and facial rejuvenation, I focus on searching for patterns that create pain, stress, illness, or disease, and use various modalities to bring the body back to balance. Music plays a huge role as a therapeutic tool in my practice.  I find that classical music and nature sounds calm the mind and invite the opportunity for my patients to relax.  I have seen people match their breath to the sound of waves or release emotional tension to the melody of a piano or violin.  I enjoy performing massage techniques to the flow of a song because it helps me deliver a more fluid treatment, as if I am dancing with my hands. To me, music is a powerful, vibrational medicine.

How else do you enjoy music?

I love to dance and especially enjoy when a DJ spins old-school hip-hop, or a drummer plays the congas – you can’t help but jump up to dance and feel alive! I love cooking to flamenco, Bollywood, and other ethnic forms of music because the energy you bring to your cooking is communicated through the food you prepare.  To feel sassy, I love listening to a good-looking man that can sing falsetto, like Justin Timberlake, Adam Levine, Bruno Mars, Miguel, and Maxwell – I even have a “Hot Guy Falsetto” playlist!  To concentrate, I prefer listening to classical music.

Tell us about your most memorable musical experience.

It was autumn, and I was driving with friends in Napa Valley.  After tons of laughs, jokes, stories, and upbeat music, I requested to hear the song “Country” by Empire of the Sun.  Everyone sat back and quietly appreciated the beauty of the trees changing colors amidst the green grass and beautiful vineyards.  It was magical, as if we were in our own Technicolor movie. When I remember moments like this, the music still plays on in my heart.