Don Robertson's
Positive Music Timeline
Since his discovery of the reality of both positive and negative music in 1968, Don Robertson, joined by his wife Mary Ellen Bickford, have been dedicated to creating, producing, and providing education about positive music and art.
The Transformative Music Institute (1979-1980)
In 1979, Don Robertson began an outward reach to inform people about positive and negative music and the benefits of uplifting positive music. At the Health and Harmony Fair in Santa Rosa, California, he set up a table and passed out flyers that told the positive and negative music story and recommended music to listen to. He also began giving classes and lectures at Sonoma State University and other places. He also produced concerts of his own music performed on an 80-string zither and North Indian classical music by students from the Ali Akbar College of Music. This led to his establishing the “Transformative Music Institute” and giving a series of three two-day “Transformative Vision Seminars” in the Bay Area with Norman Miller and Mary Ellen Bickford.
DoveSong.com (1997-2008)
In 1997, Don Robertson and Mary Ellen Bickford established the DoveSong.com website, dedicated to the understanding of positive and negative music. The website hosted a music library where great positive music recordings could be downloaded, a score library containing downloadable music scores, and a text library for information. The website was unique and attracted millions of visitors for many years. It still has a high rank in the search engines.
The Positive Music Movement (2004-2005)
Concert
“Music of Peace”
at the Library Auditorium of the United Nations
1st Ave
New York City
with members of the Positive Music Group
Friday, October 22nd, 2004
1:15 2:45 pm
Don and Mary Ellen founded the Positive Music Movement in 2004. It consisted of artists, composers, educators, and musicians who joined together to help usher in a renaissance of the arts. The members hailed from many cultures and traditions and were united in effort. The purpose of the Positive Music Movement was the promotion, education, support, and performance of inspired, heartfelt, beautiful, and uplifting music. In April 2004, a manifesto was drawn up and approved by the members of the group, who maintained a news group on the internet.
Don Robertson's Musical Kaleidoscope (2009-)
The Musical Kaleidoscope idea of incorporating positive music from many cultures and times was first tested in 1980 with a radio program that Don Robertson co-hosted on the Sonoma State University radio station. In 2007, the DoveSong.com record collection was scanned and digitized by Don and Mary Ellen and two employees hired for the project. (The large part of the collection was donated to the Center for Popular Music in 2022). The Musical Kaleidoscope website was officially launched in 2009.
An outreach for Musical Kaleidoscope was begun in 2013. Weekly classes were held in Don and Mary Ellen’s home in Nashville. In attendance were composers, arrangers and musicians.
In 2018, Don and Mary Ellen began work on the building blocks of Musical Kaleidoscope and by early 2022, over 1,000 videos had been completed.
In the spring of 2022, Don and Mary Ellen began creating the Rising World Foundation website and they will continue to add valuable information to the resources section of the website.