Programs

Our creative seminars are designed to facilitate personal empowerment, responsibility, accountability, and self-love by helping people embrace their own mortality and purpose on earth. Beneficial outcomes include releasing trauma stored in the mind/body/spirit due to painful life experiences, combined with providing transformational tools to convert fears/ obstacles/ blocks into inspired openings. Our program participants are directed to lovingly revere their uniqueness and dignity.

“Awakening” Seminars

The Programs included are:

Concerts for Charity

Prison Ministry

Our curriculum includes experiential “Awakening” workshops from a multi-dimensional perspective, including music therapy, dance and movement, and educational awareness programs connected to becoming centered and mindful.

The Awakening seminar is conducted as an intensive two and one-half day workshop that provides an opportunity for people to face their fears of death and loss so they can live their lives “on purpose” and experience the fulfillment of expressing their love and creativity daily.

Our Awakening seminars involve an eclectic participant population predicated on the following: re-igniting the life force in hospice workers and other health care providers suffering from burn out; encouraging terminally ill individuals to reclaim their vitality during their remaining time on this planet; helping convicted prisoners (who are also being kept chained by their internal low self concept) to heal and acknowledge that they are valuable individuals who can choose to offer something positive to the world.

We partner with other not-for-profit organizations committed to raising awareness through the enchantment of music.

We recently co-produced (2003,  2004 & 2006), New Year’s Eve benefit concerts in honor of John Denver’s 60th, 61st, & 63rd birthdays in order to raise money for feeding the homeless. 

We were co-producers of the annual Tribute To John Denver Concerts performed by John’s band at the historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, in October of 2006 and 2007.   This tribute is produced and sponsored by the M.U.S.E. Foundation to benefit Challenge Aspen, who make available outdoor experiences for the physically challenged. 

Prior to being a sponsor of these concerts, the First Light Huger Foundation and Karmen T. Dopslaff, a devoted friend of the late John Denver, have been invited to sponsor and present the John Denver Memorial Award at each year’s show, given to that individual who best exemplifies the music and the positive impact John Denver had on our society. John’s music is an integral component of the Awakening program.  (See below.)

Previous Events

The prison ministry has combined many of the same components as the Seminars and the Concerts and brought them into the prisons, most recently in Arizona's Department of Corrections. 

Seminars, such as the Awakening workshops, as well as concerts by the John Denver Tribute concert musicians have been presented and/or sponsored by the EAMN Foundation.

Through an intensive 8-10 week Awakening program, the incarcerated men and women are guided to move through past difficulties, detours and set backs, embrace their inner light and let their spirit emerge shining.  Our purpose here is to bring healing and relief from self-defeating behavior by teaching authentic self-expression and trust that they are valuable individuals who can choose to offer something positive to society.

Expect A Miracle . . . Now, Foundation donates the award and $10,000 annually to benefit Challenge Aspen.  The award is bestowed in the name of the honoree and John Denver at the annual tribute concert in Aspen's Wheeler Opera House.  This donation enables more than 40 special-needs children to attend a full week of camp each year.  Many of the participants' lives are changed forever.  Through this award, John's spirit continues to live on and inspire others.

To date, the Foundation has given $50,000 to benefit children.

The John Denver Music and Humanitarianism Award

Past winners have included: 

• Bill Danoff (Composer of 12 of John's recorded hit songs) - 2007

• Erma Deutchendorf (John Denver's mother) - 2006

• Kenn Roberts, founder of the M.U.S.E. Foundation - 2005

• Hal Thau, John's business manager - 2004

• Tom Crum, John's friend and co-founder of Windstar - 2003

• Kris O'Connor, John's road manager and friend and co-producer of tribute concerts in Aspen - 2002

2005, photo by Mark Fox, Aspen Times

This year's 2008 recipient will be:

Joe Henry

Joe was a longtime friend of John Denver's and fellow Aspen-area resident.  With John Denver, he composed some of John's most memorable recordings, including:

Joe in the mid-1980's

Joe Henry lives in the mountains of Colorado, writes country songs and continues work on his 1000 page novel, Lime Creek.  His lyrics have been performed in over 80 recordings, in films and television specials and have been recorded by artists such as Garth Brooks, Wynnona Judd, Emmylou Harris, Tricia Yearwood, Kenny Rodgers, John Denver, Frank Sinatra and others. The Flame, lyrics by Henry and music by John Jarvis was sung  by Trisha Yearwood in the closing ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta .  His awards include a Creative Fellowship Award in Fiction from the Colorado Council of the Arts; the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation for “the celebration of the natural word in his prose, poetry and song.”

Lyricist/poet/novelist Joe Henry of Colorado has established himself as one of that state's (and the nation's) most valuable resources of inspiring words. He has been honored by the Colorado Council on the Arts and Governor Roy Romer with the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, and by the National Wildlife Federation with a National Conservation Achievement Award. Henry is currently preparing for the premiere and a month-long run at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, one of the nation's most prestigious stages, of his Prelude to Lime Creek.

The work is a theatrical production combining readings of excerpts from his novel in progress, Lime Creek, with performances of new songs cowritten by Joe and Gary Burr, ASCAP's 1995 Country Songwriter of the Year. The work was conceived by and stars film and television actor Anthony Zerbe, a friend and admirer of Henry's, who has done extensive dramatic readings from Lime Creek for a number of years. Performing the Prelude to Lime Creek songs is singer/guitarist and ASCAP songwriter Greg Barnhill.

Joe Henry is a unique figure in the music world, a truly rugged adventurer and individualist who paints breathtaking natural landscapes with his lyrics. His enduring collaboration with fellow Coloradoan and ASCAP member John Denver has yielded some of Denver's most memorable recordings, including "Windsong," "Cool an' Green an' Shady," "The Wings That Fly Us Home" and "A Baby Just Like You." Henry's other songwriting partners and vocalist interpreters are a diverse group, from singer songwriters like Peter Yarrow, Guy Clark and Mickey Newbury to Hollywood composers Bill Conti, Lee Holdridge and Steve Dorff, to country and pop music stars Emmylou Harris, Steve Wariner, Donna Fargo, Roberta Flack, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra and Ashford & Simpson.

The life that created Joe Henry the songwriter has been anything but run of the mill. The ex-professional hockey player and prizefighter has spent most of his years, as he puts it, "working in the weather," on construction sites, cattle ranches and merchant vessels around the world. His entry into the lyric writing field came about by chance and not design -- listening to a friend casually play a new melody on the guitar caused Joe to visualize a set of lyrics. As acquaintances began taking notice of his abilities, they urged him to try to market his work, and by 1969 he was in New York, working construction and training as a pro boxer. At the same time, Joe hooked up with a publisher who placed one of his songs, "Brown Arms in Houston" with a top psychedelic-era band from Boston called Orpheus.

Joe recalls waking up after emergency surgery to repair his nose after his first (and last) pro fight and being handed a full page Billboard ad for the single. "My boxing career ended the same hour that my professional music career began. That was a big day in my life," says Henry. "Brown Arms in Houston" became a Northeast regional Number One hit.

For the past 13 years, Henry has devoted the major part of the year to traveling to Los Angeles, Nashville and New York to pursue songwriting, reserving his winters for working on Lime Creek, which he thinks is finally nearing completion. Increased anticipation for the book is sure to result from the production of Prelude to Lime Creek.

Anthony Zerbe offers his analysis of what makes Joe's work so vital: "It's very original in the sense that it is Joe's heart. It's very American, rough-edged and it ricochets. It's not stylish and it's not svelte but has force and a very natural profundity -- all his metaphors are drawn from nature." Composer Gary Burr, who is new to writing for the theater but has enjoyed massive commercial success, reveals that, though each song was written to support or refer to the narrative readings, "We wanted each song we wrote to be a potential hit on the radio. I really think Joe has a wonderful gift with words and it was not hard to come up with the songs that captured that spirit."
 

2007's Recipient was:

Bill Danoff

Bill (left) with John (and former wife Taffy) in the 1970's

As he walks out on stage, you may not recognize this quick-witted, energetic performer with the custom-made Ferrington Guitar.  However, when he launches into some of his tunes like "Afternoon Delight", "I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado", "Boulder to Birmingham" (written with Emmylou Harris) and "Take Me Home Country Roads" it suddenly hits you that Bill Danoff has been part of your life since the seventies.  "Hey, didn't this guy used to tour with John Denver in a group called Fat City? . . . or was it the Starland Vocal Band?"  Well, actually, both.  Bill was half of Fat City and the leader of Starland.  Bill's songwriting and performing talents are now being showcased in a new format as a solo act and, like everything Bill does, it's top-notch.

Bill started writing in college and, upon his graduation from Georgetown University with a degree in Chinese, he took the obvious next step . . . and went into full-time music.  He formed a duo with Taffy Nivert called Fat City.  They co-authored "Take Me Home Country Roads" with John Denver while sharing a gig with him in D.C. at the Cellar Door.  After recording the song with Denver, they went on TV shows and tours with Denver.  John first recorded Bill's song, I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado, and eventually went on to record a total of 12 songs penned by Bill, including the popular "Friends With You," the last one being "Potter's Wheel."

A new solo album was released in 2002, titled "I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado,"  featuring Danoff performing the dozen songs of his recorded by John Denver.  Bill continues to share his music with John's fans worldwide in tribute concerts to John.  Bill is friendly and easy to know, and in his warm open way, he'll share with everyone his wonderful stories about how his and John's lives intersected to enable John to achieve his fame and success and enrich both of their lives.

More about Bill at his web site:  www.billdanoff.com

Bill Danoff listens as Karmen reads the inscription during the award's presentation in 2007.

Erma Deutchendorf receiving the 2006 Award from Karmen, with Houston Cowan (of Challenge Aspen) and Kenn Roberts on either side

Kenn Roberts receiving the 2005 Award from Karmen, for his continued support of using John's music through concerts to help others.