Music and the arts reach around all corners of the world and into all corners of our life and Dr. Eugene Beresin details many aspects of their purpose and importance in his book Arts For Health: Music. I think this is important information to share and it reinforces what all of us musicians and artists already know...that the arts (regardless of their type), when done with the right intention, are healing arts.
-- Jeff Coffin, 3x Grammy winning saxophonist, composer, educator, author. Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Ear Up Records founder, The Mu'tet.
Music is certainly a pleasurable and universal part of the human experience, but is it really possible that harms could be assuaged through harmonies, symptoms soothed by symphonies, remedies found in rhythm? As an expert Harvard physician, healer, and musician, Dr. Gene Beresin makes a forceful and persuasive case that the answer is a resounding, "yes" - scientifically elucidating and affirming music's psycho-biological therapeutic effects and uncovering its power to heal. Informative, instructive, inspirational, students, clinicians, patients, and family members, will find solace and joy here.
-- John F. Kelly, PhD, ABPP Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of Psychiatry in Addiction Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Recovery Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA USA. Award-winning songwriter, singer, musician, and producer.
If you are in the group of people that think music is ancillary to your life - or extracurricular or non-essential - but have been waiting for someone to prove you wrong, look no further! Dr. Eugene Beresin has comprehensively, and in simple language, dispelled any hypothesis of the kind in his book, Arts For Health: Music. From heartfelt personal testimonies to factual medical data, this book beautifully explains the effect music universally has on humanity and why it's important for individual well-being. It is a must have for all music teachers, students and professionals, as it gives language to what we innately already know.
-- Terri Lyne Carrington - Grammy Award winning, drummer/composer/producer/activist, who is played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Al Jarreau and many others.
Music has a visceral, transcendent power that cuts across language, culture and age, and it can help us connect to each other, as well as to our innermost selves. In Arts For Health: Music, Gene Beresin has created a fantastic reminder of and argument for music's power to lead us to healthier, more connected, and more fulfilling lives.
-- Chris Eldridge - Grammy winning acoustic guitarist with Punch Brothers, Julian Lage. Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year. Visiting Assistant Professor of Contemporary Acoustic Music, Oberlin Conservatory.