Album Notes

Rob Guttenberg

Rob Guttenberg earned a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from the Adler-Dreikurs Institute for Human Relations at Bowie State College in 1979. He is currently the Director of Parenting Education for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase YMCA Bethesda Youth Services, where he has been employed since 1985.

Rob has been a performing songwriter for over twenty-five years. In 1975, while completing undergraduate studies at Brown University, students went on strike to protest rises in the costs of tuition, along with a decreased commitment on the part of the university to provide scholarships for minority students. Rob composed the song, ‘Rich, White American University’, and performed it before a crowd of students who had gathered for a strike rally held on the campus green. Walter Cronkite, in his CBS Evening News broadcast, reported on the strike at Brown, showing a video clip of Rob singing his protest song.

In 1983, at the age of 29, Rob experienced a massive brain hemorrhage, leaving him with severe physical and cognitive impairments. After fourteen years in his recovery process, Rob collaborated with the National Organization on Disability (NOD) to compose the song, ‘FDR in a Wheelchair’. Since that time, he has led performance workshops on ‘Overcoming Adversity Through Songwriting’ with adolescents and adults in schools, youth development programs, and therapeutic mental health programs.

In 1987 and 1988, Rob traveled to Lithuania and Belarus, presenting concert/workshops to students, teachers and Hospice workers. He developed and taught a two-week course on Music Therapy at the International Committee for Adlerian Summer Schools and Institutes (ICASSI) in Lithuania in 1998, and near Boston, Massachusetts in 1999.

Christopher Flynn, staff writer for the Gazette Newspapers claims that, ... “Guttenberg transforms the fears and pains associated with tribulations into a collection of honest and courageous expressions of hope and healing.”