Joanna Clare started her violin quite young on rather standard Suzuki method fare, but along the way Irish music captured her, both as a dancer & as a fiddler. And along the way, new Irish tunes began flowing out of Joanna's fiddle. Though she is a Philadelphia-based material science/engineer by day, music is inextricably linked to her mind & soul.

The Holistic Life Foundation does the amazing work of transforming lives & spirits in inner city Baltimore. The basic tools are yoga & mindfulness taught and modeled by 3 men in the hood. Ali Smith, Atman Smith & Andres Gonzales founded HLF fresh out of college in 2001, working with kids, at-risk people, the mentally ill, and everyone else, providing a model for changed and redirected lives.