The Sound Health Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Renée Fleming.

New Funding Opportunity!

Notice of Funding Opportunity

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to ressiue PAR-23-256 “Feasibility Trials of the NIH Music-based Interventions Toolkit for Brain Disorders of Aging (R34 Clinical Trial Required)” in order to support proof-of-concept feasibility trials guided by the NIH Music-based Interventions (MBI) Toolkit for research on brain disorders of aging.

These early phase clinical trials will generate evidence supporting the validity of the NIH MBI Toolkit’s guiding principles as well as the necessary pilot data to design a subsequent clinical efficacy or effectiveness study (or pragmatic clinical trial) using music-based interventions in the context of brain disorders of aging, including but not limited to Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. The data collected should address gaps in scientific knowledge in order to facilitate development of a competitive large-scale clinical trial.

Earliest submission date, May 20, 2024. For all deadlines and requirements visit here.

For additional funding opportunities visit Sound Health Network.

In Conversation with Kristin Sakoda

This spring, we spoke to Kristin Sakoda, arts executive, attorney, performing artist and director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture where her mission is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout the largest county in the U.S.

When she appeared at Music as Medicine: The Science and Clinical Practice workshop, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and jointly organized by NIH, the NEA, the Renée Fleming Foundation, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last December, we were culturally enamored and wanted the opportunity to learn more about her origin story and current activities.

We hope you feel her palpable creative energy along with her advocacy for the arts and its role in our lives as strongly as we do! We remain stirred by her presence, her work in the county and her commitment to the future of the arts to the equitable human development for all.

SHN: Can you remember your first memory with music?

Kristin: I don't remember a first memory with music, but I was interested and attracted to music from a very young age.  As it's been told to me, I started my lifelong practice in the arts through dance, which is very closely associated with music, of course, and those things have always been very much interlinked.

You’re very much responding to music. You're also expressing music through your body and through the choreography. I ended up dancing quite seriously from a very young age and performing professionally. This was in Chicago, which was huge for ballet dancers. But I remember some of those records being in my room as a child, like the Doobie Brothers. There was Billy Joel, when I was in elementary school, middle school was around the time of Prince, and Madonna, I mean, all that and the movies!

SHN: The soundtrack of your childhood is strong.

Kristin: And then there was the whole trajectory of what you saw on screen that was music, like Grease and all the ways that dance was presented in popular culture.  I also have one other thing that I just want to put forth. I remember distinctly that there was a day, I don't remember how old I was, my parents gave me a clock radio and I danced around my room singing with my mom the entire day.

SHN: It almost encapsulated you into a space, where you were solely interacting with this object that was giving you sound.

Kristin: That's awesome. Wow, that's pretty cool - loved that you asked this question.

SHN: So, is there a first memory with medicine? 

Kristin: Medicine has always been, broadly speaking, in my household because my parents worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago. My father had gone to dental school and became a dentist and the Chief of Dental Services; so, I am the product of an HBCU. My mother was a hospital dietician, so medicine has been all around, there’s been a long lineage in my family of those in civil service, public service and essential workers.

SHN: Can you share how you would like our community to know of your entry point to the interconnectedness between arts and health?

Kristin: I come to this with a lifelong love of the arts, fortunate enough to have a very multifaceted career and experience in the arts. I have absolutely been an arts learner; I have a lifelong practice; I also was a professional artist. And so, I know very much the ups and downs of that, the challenges, the successes, whether it's auditioning, whether it's how you manage rejection of auditioning, whether it's being in your first Broadway show, whether it's, you know, all those kinds of pieces. And also, that the most incredible work that is happening in this country and in the arts is happening in the artist's studio, whether it's a rehearsal studio, visual arts studio, or having that art making and ultimately creative expression is so important. But then I've also been able to weave that together with other experiences and roles such as arts administration and funding. So, I bring kind of all of this to bear [in my work]. 

SHN: What is the biggest impact? 

Kristin: Ultimately, where I feel all of this is kind of wedded together is around what impact can I have towards social justice and equity and inclusion through the arts, through my flag and my mantle. And so that also brings forward lived experience as well as a really keen understanding now that I've been on the public sector side of things for over a decade in my career really assessing and looking at the policy implications and the goals that we have in the public sector of improving quality of life, improving equity, having access for communities and how we can be that really incredible role that the arts has for us all.

SHN: I love how you mentioned through the arts. It’s an incredible lens to see through. With all your loves and interests, how did you get to the place where you said, ‘I’ve done dance, I have a family with a medical background, I have a deep appreciation for music, I’ve been an attorney and a professional artist’ and now this role.

Kristin: It is not going to be a straight line and so you may feel that you're kind of zigging and zagging, but every choice you make, every experience you have is leading you closer and closer to who you are where you want to be and you're able to kind of consolidate those learnings along the way.

So that would be true for me too, it wasn’t a point A to point B.  Especially because, first of all, my set of experiences, I'm sure I'm not the only person in the universe, there are others who maybe have a law degree but also were a dancer but it's not super common either.  I encourage people to keep trusting the choices and experiences they have. At minimum even if you hated it, you learn something about yourself in relationship to that work, organization or that culture.  So someone who was an artist and was considered a successful performing artist, there was a time where going into law school and then post law school was actually very challenging because it's so different and when you've been spending your days at a job it's very different than spending days going to auditions and physically embodying being an artist. 

The deeper I got into how to leverage my legal work and then going to the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City and building on that, the harder it became to do both and I really needed to center this as where I was going to lend my creativity and my voice and my impact.  I saw how huge of an impact you can have no matter where you sit but let me say this, I believe that the arts are one of the most undervalued resources in our country, full stop. I think that as a sector, if you want to talk economic development only, let's just talk economic prosperity, how big the arts and creative economy is, it is way beyond what most people know. It's bigger than the construction industry. It's big in Los Angeles County alone, - direct and indirect output of the creative arts and creative economy in LA County is about  $200 billion every year – and its huge across the nation as well. 

More and more we're learning and data is showing what we've kind of always known intrinsically, which is that art also has the power to support our human development, our community development and our economic development so arts and health, for me, became another significant pillar, kind of in this broader understanding of the importance and value of the arts that has really become kind of the centerpiece of why I do what I do but also what I'm trying to articulate and increase the visibility of, from where I sit knowledge about that economic impact. 

SHN: This is such an important conversation we’re having because this intersection is what the Sound Health Network wants to amplify through our mission and underscore the value of resource to both sides, the arts and the medicine. There are so many intangibles that go unseen that create as you say pillars of support down to therapeutic environments.

Kristin: Definitely! And when you have data and research to tell the story what of is happening along with quantifying the economic impact through major studies which folks have been doing over many years even for specific industries we get to social impact of the arts and more ability to smartly tell the story of the power of the arts in these other realms – so health is critically important. 

We have so many incredible people doing research quantifying and trying to understand really the how does this work, right? How and why? How does the music calm your nerves and stuff like that? Each of those pieces helps give us additional resources as we incorporate the arts into strategies and infrastructure around health and other aspects of our civic lives. As we see it as a frontier as it is in other places around the world we’re trying to push in those directions. And so, if someone wants to think of it in a more medicinal way, how do they dose it then? Was it a specific number of times a week? Does it need to be a specific setting? It is helpful to the administrators and the policy makers to just help us see and articulate the value.

SHN: We couldn't agree more.

Connect with Kristin Sakoda on LinkedIn, or follow her work on Instagram, YouTube and via the web at the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

Affinity Group Announcements

The Sound Health Network is pleased to announce the formation of an affinity group centered around the topic of music and integrative health. 

What is Integrative Health?

Integrative medicine or integrative healthcare involves bringing conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. We promote healing-oriented healthcare that takes account of the whole person. We emphasize the relationship between practitioner and patient, we seek out scientific evidence, and we work with a range of healthcare professionals, disciplines, and therapeutic techniques to achieve health and well-being.

The group is led by Suzanne B. Hanser Ed.D. MT-BC, founding chair emerita of Berklee's Music Therapy Department and president of the International Association for Music & Medicine.

To join the music and integrative health affinity group and learn about upcoming meetings, please join the group’s listserv here. Our next meeting will take place on June 21.

The goals of Affinity Groups for the Sound Health Network are to:

• facilitate connections among stakeholders who have a mutual interest in music and health
• facilitate cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration (e.g., researchers, music therapists, musicians)
• provide a forum to discuss topics of interest (e.g., appropriate control conditions, study designs, music interventions, training)
• build community and provide support

To learn more about other affinity groups, please click here.

From our NIH Partners: NIH Music-Based Intervention Toolkit for Brain Disorders of Aging

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) recently launched the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Music-Based Intervention Toolkit for Brain Disorders of Aging. This web-based resource will help researchers and health professionals interested in exploring music-based interventions for brain disorders of aging; it was adapted from a paper published in the journal, Neurology on May 1, 2023.

Learn more about the researcher toolkit in the NCCIH Research blog here.

Access the toolkit here.

In Case You Missed it: Exploring App-Based Music Interventions and Therapist-Led Music Therapy

Watch a recording here!



Technology has revolutionized the way we access and utilize various forms of music therapy and music-based interventions. This symposium delves into the dynamic discourse surrounding the use of technology-driven music interventions versus traditional therapist-led approaches. We will discuss research findings, clinical outcomes, and case studies highlighting the advantages and limitations of each approach. This symposium is designed for music therapists, psychologists, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and anyone interested in the evolving field of music-based interventions.

In Case You Missed it: Music and Health Mock Study Section with Q&A



Watch a recording here!

“Music and Health” Mock Study Section with Q&A” was the third in the “Music and Health Grant Writing Series”, sponsored by the Sound Health Network and NIH. The music and health research community were invited to join this 90 minute webinar accompanied by a 20-minute Q&A to a) become familiar with the NIH study section review process; b) better understand how reviewers present and discuss applications to the NIH; c) learn about the importance of the review criteria: significance, innovation, investigators, approach, environment, and additional review criteria; and d) better understand the roles of the primary reviewers, the panel, and NIH staff in a NIH study section review. 

In Case You Missed it: Writing a Strong Research Plan

Watch a recording here!

“Writing a Strong Research Plan” was the second session in the “Music and Health Grant Writing Series”, sponsored by the Sound Health Network in collaboration with the NEA and NIH. This session went into more depth about the research plan section of a grant application, with a particular focus on music and health grants.

Research Spotlight: Music and Joy in the Black Community

Jones, Herrmann, Nock et al. 2023 A Digital-Music based Mindfulness Intervention for Black Americans with Elevated Race-Based Anxiety, a Multiple-Baseline Pilot Study Race-based anxiety is a significant health issue within the Black community. This experiment used a digital music-based mindfulness intervention for middle to low-income Black Americans with elevated race-based anxiety. Overall, this music-based mindfulness intervention reduced anxiety. Importantly, metrics on feasibility and acceptability were high, with participants recommending the intervention because it was “helpful for anxiety,” “easy to engage with,” and “improved the ability to be present.” The results are promising as a web-based mindfulness intervention like this overcomes barriers like high cost, excessive time.

Lichtl et al. 2022 Music Therapy for Pain in Black and White Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study Black cancer patients are under-represented in music therapy trials. Lichtl and colleagues retrospectively evaluated Black and White patients who had received music therapy at a cancer center. Black patients reported higher baseline pain than white patients but received opioids in equal proportions. Greater proportions of Black patients received music therapy referrals for pain and engaged in active techniques, often discussing spirituality during music therapy. Because of differences in the music therapy experiences of Black vs. White cancer patients, this experiment may inform future research to culturally adapt music therapy and reduce racial disparities in cancer populations. 

Burch, 2021 Perspectives on Racism: Reflections on Our Collective Moral Responsibility When Leveraging Arts and Culture for Health Promotion In this essay, Shanae Burch discusses racism as a social determinant of health and how to use arts and culture for moral health promotion. Because there have been health disparities for people of color, health principles must evolve in several areas, such as community representation, creating healthier, equitable communities, fostering cross-sector collaboration to improve well-being, and being aware of historical memory and ethical storytelling. Just as language tells a story, the scholars the field cites also expose a narrative. Artists can be mindful of the scholars they cite and actively commit to anti-racism

Bradt et al. 2016 Perspectives on Racism: Reflections on Our Collective Moral Responsibility When Leveraging Arts and Culture for Health Promotion. In this experiment, 55 inner city adults, predominantly African Americans, were randomized to an 8-week vocal music therapy treatment group or a waitlisted control group. This intervention leads to positive changes in self-efficacy and pain interference, with smaller changes seen for pain intensity and coping. In focus groups, participants reported enhanced self-management, motivation, empowerment, a sense of belonging, and reduced isolation. This experiment suggests that vocal music therapy may be effective for chronic pain management because it enhances self-efficacy, motivation, empowerment, and social engagement. 

Related Conferences and Events

Join AARP, the NIH funded Music & Dementia Research Network and the National Institute for Aging for a day of music movement and song ion Thursday, May 16, 2024. at the "Music & Brain Health Summit Performance".

The overall goal of this in-person and virtual event led by the Music and Dementia Research Network is to accelerate research that aims to understand the mechanisms by which Music Based Interventions (MBIs) affect health and well-being for older adults living with Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) and their care partners. Click here to attend.

Registration is now open for the 2024 Frequency Following Response (FFR)Workshop, taking place in Chicago, USA from 12-14 June 2024. The Workshop will be held on the Northwestern University campus, situated with views of beautiful Lake Michigan and walking distance from the Lakefront Trail, Ohio Street beach, Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile. The workshop will include 2 days of posters and talks, including keynotes by Dr. Fuh-Cherng Jeng, Dr. Samira Anderson, Dr. Rachel Reetzke, and Dr. Srivatsun Sadagopan, followed by a networking event (parts of the program will be available as free livestreams for the general public).

June 13-16, 2024 - The Neurosciences and Music: Wiring, re-wiring, and well-being. Helsinki, Finland & Online

Click here for additional upcoming events!

Watch Sound Health Network events here.

Job Opportunities in Music and Health

Check out music and health job opportunities on our website here!

Research Coordinator, Music and Medicine

The Research Coordinator will contribute to the advancement of research, theory, and practice in the fields of music therapy and music & medicine. They will play a vital role in educating caregivers, administrators, and the general public about the role of music in medical settings. Some of the requirements for the Research Coordinator include:

1. Serve as a coordinator for music and medicine-based studies at the Eastman School of Music. 
2. Serve as a coordinator for music therapy-based studies at UR Medicine. 
3. Maintain a working knowledge of clinical trial coordination by reviewing research literature, attending pertinent meetings and seminars, participate in the preparation of study documents and regulatory requirements. Complete regulatory requirements and develop study protocols, assessments. 

The Research Coordinator will contribute to the advancement of research, theory, and practice in the fields of music therapy and music & medicine. They will play a vital role in educating caregivers, administrators, and the general public about the role of music in medical settings. 

Multiple Anticipated Positions in the Music, Social Engagement, and Development Workgroup in the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab, Nashville, TN (PI: Miriam Lense, PhD)

• Music Therapist (Part or Full-Time) *Note: combined music therapist/postdoctoral fellow position possible for candidates with both clinical and research training
• Postdoctoral Fellow (Part or Full-Time) *Clinical experience/skills preferred.

Pediatric Music Therapy Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Research fellowship will provide postdoctoral training for a highly-qualified credentialed music therapist with a Ph.D. The 3-year fellowship has two key goals:

1. Provide intensive research training in the topic area of pediatrics, pain, and music  therapy; and
2. Provide interprofessional mentorship for a music therapy researcher to become an independent academic researcher.

The fellowship will offer a unique experience for learning, growing, and advancing research. The fellow will learn the methods required to implement clinical research and begin training at the UCSF Summer Clinical Research Workshop. The fellowship also will leverage clinical research courses from UCSF’s Advanced Training in Clinical Research. Furthermore, the fellow will participate in the two of the most comprehensive training courses in the field worldwide and directed by Dr. Friedrichsdorf: the Pediatric Pain Master Class and Education in Palliative & End-of-Life Care Pediatrics. These trainings will allow the fellow to further their knowledge, skills, and attitude in the field.

The multidisciplinary nature of the mentorship experience will be unique. The mentoring team will include Julene Johnson, PhD (Professor, Institute for Health & Aging, UCSF School of Nursing and the Sound Health Network Sheri Robb, PhD, MT-BC (Walther Professor of Supportive Oncology, Indiana University Schools of Nursing and Medicine), and Stefan Friedrichsdorf, MD (Elisa and Marc Stad Professor in Pediatric Pain Medicine, Palliative Care and Integrative Medicine), with additional mentors as needed. The fellow will meet with their interprofessional mentoring team on a monthly basis to discuss their research project and career development in addition to obtaining tailored training on music therapy, pediatrics, pain, palliative care, and music and health research.