A refugee of war, Pacific University professor Dijana Ihas teaches music to heal and inspire
Her small, strong arms wave through the air in quick, measured loops -- gestures that allow professor Dijana Ihas to bring all of the room's violins, cellos, and violas into harmony. Suddenly, she stops. Her hands come to her side and her brown eyes soften. "Students," she said. "What do you think is heart of this piece?" Without failure, her booming voice and thick eastern European accent command their attention. She is asking them to assign emotion to the music. To not only learn how to play it, but to experience it. "This class becomes an emotional release for a lot of students -- a really powerful one," said Sarah Tomscha, a Pacific University student and pupil of Ihas. Ihas has seen music's ability to lift one's spirit even in the direst of circumstances. Being a musician helped her survive the Bosnian War. It's how she helped others survive, too. Born in 1963 in Sarajevo in what was then socialist-run Yugoslavia, ...