SOULAR JAZZ FESTIVAL TEAM

Ed Harlow 
Executive Director & Founder

Saxophonist, composer, educator Ed Harlow has been based in the greater Boston area since 1987. He has toured the US, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, France and the Caribbean with groups such as The Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Artie Shaw Orchestra and Volo Volo de Boston. Mr. Harlow has also performed with notable artists such as Tony Bennett, The Temptations, Johnny Mathis and Paquito D'Rivera. Harlow has composed numerous publications for Advance Music and has released two CDs as a leader.

Kathleen Howland
Education Director

For the past 35 years, Kathleen Howland has worked with a variety of clinical populations using music to enhance speech, language, cognition and movement in habilitation and rehabilitation settings. She has also developed protocols to reduce stress and anxiety for general wellness, surgical preparation, oncology treatments and child birthing. Her doctoral studies in music and cognition have informed and supported her interest in bridging the communities of science and art in order to identify best practices.

In addition to Howland's training in music therapy, she is also a Speech Language Pathologist (CCC-SLP). This certification has advanced the theoretical and clinical foundations from which she works and problem solves. She seeks to find entry points to abilities nested in disability and be innovative to engineer skill advancement for improved function and quality of life. 

Howland teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Berklee College of Music in music therapy and liberal arts. This provides her the opportunity to bring clinical work into the classroom and academic resources to clinical work. Howland lectures internationally about the neurological foundations for music perception and performance and the power of music as a therapeutic intervention.