The Kennedy Center and the National Institutes of Health are teaming up to promote and learn more about the links between music, health and wellness.
This week the Kennedy Center starts holding regular programs promoting music as part of a healthy lifestyle. This is part of the new partnership, Sound Health.
In June, Sound Health will take center stage at a two-day event featuring performances and presentations from experts on the impact of music on the brain.
Sound Health will be expanding on performances given by the National Symphony Orchestra at the NIH Clinical Center and will be led by Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor at Large Renee Fleming.
“There are ramifications here for a host of health topics: Childhood development, autism, pain management, Alzheimer’s, PTSD – the list goes on and on, because music’s impact on the brain can be so powerful,” Fleming said in a statement from the Kennedy Center.
During a workshop in January marking the start of Sound Health, experts discussed clinical uses for music in some of the cases mentioned by Fleming. For example, the beat of a metronome can steady someone with Parkinson’s disease, and music’s effect on the brain may help manage pain for cancer patients.
