This author previously wrote as Emma Ayres.
Whole Notes : Life Lessons through Music
Sydney
:
ABC Books
,
2021
24886276
2021
single work
autobiography
'How can we pause long enough to repair ourselves? How can we make space and time in our lives to know ourselves?
'One way is through music - learning music, listening to music, being open to music. Because music consoles and restores us. Through music, whether we are listening or playing, we know ourselves more intimately, more honestly, and more clearly with every note. And with every note, music offers us a hand to the beyond.
'Through music, we can say what we didn't even know we felt.
'This book is an ode to music, and a celebration of humanity's greatest creation. It is not a call to arms, but a call to instruments.
'In music, Ed Ayres finds answers to the big questions life throws at us. Using personal anecdotes - including those relating to his transition from Emma to Ed - and observations from teaching and learning music, Ed finds hope in our desire to become whole, with some simple music lessons along the way.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Sonam and the Silence
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2018
13967971
2018
single work
picture book
children's
'In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Sonam's world is dark and silent. Then one day, she follows a magical, melodious sound to a walled garden, and her world is silent no more. The sound is music, and it lifts her up amongst the stars and takes her deeper than the tree roots in the earth. How can she hold on to this feeling in a world where music is forbidden? A lyrical fable-like story about the irrepressible power of music.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Danger Music
Sydney
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2017
11532508
2017
single work
autobiography
'Eddie Ayres has a lifetime of musical experience—from learning the viola as a child in England and playing with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, to landing in Australia to present an extremely successful ABC Classic FM radio show. But all of this time Eddie was Emma. In 2014 Emma was spiralling into depression, driven by anguish about her gender. She quit the radio and decided on a surprising path to salvation. Emma applied for a position at Dr Sarmast's renowned Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, teaching cello to orphans and street kids. In Danger Music, Eddie takes us through the chaos of Kabul, into the lives of the Afghan children who are transported by Bach, Abba, Beethoven and their own exhilarating Afghan music. Alongside these epic experiences, Emma determines to take the final steps to secure her own peace; she becomes the man always there inside— Eddie.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
