Music has a profound impact and the ability to shape 86 billion neurons in the brain for cognitive development, healing, and therapy. Science research has clearly shown that music therapy interventions can improve quality of life across nearly all neurological disorders. And there is tremendous public-interest in applying music to creative aging, childhood development, and community wellness.
But scientists want to know more.
Join soprano Renée Fleming and a distinguished panel of local Kansas City experts in neurology, music therapy, music and healing, and more for this cutting-edge discussion. Audience members will be able to participate in a Q&A following the panel discussion.
*Please note this Music and the Mind Event is not a musical performance*
As Artistic Advisor at Large to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Renée Fleming has spearheaded a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, with the participation of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The Sound Health initiative explores and brings attention to research and practice at the intersection of music, health, and neuroscience. This collaboration has led to workshops at the NIH, and events and performances at the Kennedy Center. This initiative has also led the NIH to recently award $20 million dollars in funding for music and neuroscience research over five years.
As part of her advocacy, Fleming is also advisor to the recently-launched NEA/UCSF Sound Health Network and co- chair of the Aspen Institute/Johns Hopkins NeuroArts Blueprint, both working to advance the field of arts and health.
PANELISTS (with Renée Fleming)
DEANNA HANSON-ABROMEIT, PhD, MT-BC is an Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Music Education at the University of Kansas (KU). She earned a Bachelor of Music (1994) and Master of Arts (2001) in music therapy from the University of Iowa, and the PhD in music education with an emphasis in music therapy from KU (2006). She has 27 years of clinical experience primarily with infants in medical and community-based settings and has been a music therapy educator for 17 years. She leads the Baby-Music Intervention Research lab at KU with a focus on developing and strengthening theory, design, research, and practice of music interventions particularly for infants and families and promotes translational research in a collaborative transdisciplinary framework. Dr. Hanson-Abromeit developed the Therapeutic Function of Music Plan as a framework to deepen understanding of how and why music contributes to change. She actively mentors research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students as future agents of change in music interventions. Dr. Hanson-Abromeit is a board-certified music therapist and a member of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and International Congress of Infant Studies. She was the 2020 recipient of the AMTA Research and Publication Award and the 2019 recipient of the KU Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor Award, and currently serves as the Chair for the Board of Directors of the Certification Board for Music Therapists.
DR. DAWN IWAMASA is Assistant Professor in Music Education and Music Therapy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate music therapy courses. She is both a Board-Certified Music Therapist and Certified Child Life Specialist with considerable experience in the pediatric hospital setting. Over her 22-year career, she also worked in behavioral health programs and with a variety of populations such as children and adults with disabilities and persons with dementia.
Dr. Iwamasa has a wide range of research interests that include higher education, clinical training, and music therapy policy. Her clinical research centers around music therapy for pain management and data mining in healthcare. Dr. Iwamasa regularly presents at national conferences and publishes in peer-reviewed journals. She is a Fellow of the National Institute of Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy and is a collaborator with the Early Notes Network, an international music therapy consortium for childhood neurodevelopment. Prior to her appointment at UMKC, Dr. Iwamasa served on the faculties of Marylhurst University (OR) and Arizona State University. Born and raised in Hawai’i, she earned her doctorate from Florida State University in Music Education and Music therapy, and a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and Master of Arts in Music Therapy from the University of the Pacific (CA).
JEAN-LUC KABANGU, M.D., was born in The Democratic Republic of the Congo and lived in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa before moving to Dallas, Texas. He completed his undergraduate training at the University of Dallas, where he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Biology and minor in Philosophy. While at the University of Dallas he served as president of the Pre-health society, Beta Beta Beta (Biological Honors Society), and organized a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He then attended medical school at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is currently in his fourth year of neurosurgical residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he has been involved in primate research and machine learning.
This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please call the Harriman-Jewell Series at 816-415-5025 to reserve your seat.
Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required for entry. Thank you!