Four-Time Grammy® Award Winning
Musician Michael Feinstein Headlines the IMNF 2010 Music Has
Power TM Awards Benefit
At Feinstein’s at Loews Regency
Institute for Music and Neurologic
Function Honors
Shelley & Donald Rubin and Petr Janata for their Commitment
to the Healing Power of Music
The healing power of music and the helping
power of musicians will come together on September 14th
when acclaimed four-time Grammy®Award
winning musician Michael Feinstein headlines the 10th
Annual Music Has PowerTM Awards benefit at
Feinstein’s at Loews Regency – The Nightclub of New
York. Widely recognized as one of the most beloved
interpreters of American popular songs, Michael Feinstein
has dedicated his career to reviving and promoting the works
of legendary singers and songwriters, including Cole Porter,
Irving Berlin, and Frank Sinatra.
The Music Has Power Awards are presented
annually by the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function
(IMNF) to honor those individuals in the arts, sciences and
business communities whose work contributes to the
advancement of vital, often groundbreaking music therapy
research, development and programs. This year, the IMNF
will honor Shelley and Donald Rubin as well as Petr Janata.
“We are pleased to honor Shelley and Donald
Rubin along with Petr Janata for their commitment to the
incredible power of music to improve the quality of life for
people who suffer with dementia and other neurological
disorders,” states
IMNF Executive Director
Dr. Concetta Tomaino.
“The Music Has Power Awards fundraising
benefit allows us the opportunity to thank and recognize the
people who believe in and support our mission to develop
effective therapies which awaken, stimulate and heal through
the extraordinary power of music.”
Shelley and Donald Rubin
have a strong belief in the power of music to heal. As a
result, Music and Memory, which began as a project of the
Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, is now an independent
philanthropic organization that has brought personalized
music to people with Alzheimer’s and other neurological
disorders, enriching their lives.
A collaboration between Music and Memory and
the IMNF resulted in Well-Tuned: Music Players for Health, a
program that gives people with Alzheimer’s and other forms
of dementia the opportunity to access therapeutic music
remotely. Through the Well-Tuned: Music Players for Health
program, IMNF music therapists work with family members and
caregivers to create a customized list of music,
specifically tailored for the individual with dementia.
The music is then loaded onto an iPod and listened to in
order to stabilize mood, reduce tension and improve overall
quality of life.
Petr Janata, a
cognitive neuroscientist at the Center for Mind and Brain at
the University of California
Davis campus, is researching why
music is a force so compelling that it can bind people
together, stir memories and lift depression. Among his
current projects is a study on the efficacy of a program
involving patients who hear custom-tailored, individually
selected music over the course of the day to help reduce
negative behaviors that occur in residential care
facilities.
A member of the Beth Abraham Family of Health
Services, the IMNF’s groundbreaking and internationally
recognized programs use music therapy to assist in the
“awakening and healing” of individuals with a wide-range of
neurological conditions including strokes, trauma, dementia,
Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.
The 2010 Music Has Power Awards event will
begin at 6p.m. The event is sponsored by The Bank of New
York Mellon Wealth Management with additional support from
the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and Feinstein’s at
Loews Regency. Funds raised will support music therapy
programs, along with clinical and scientific research.
Previous recipients include Dr. Oliver Sacks, Mickey Hart,
Remo Belli, moby, and Henry Z. Steinway.
For tickets or sponsorship
information, please contact the IMNF
at (718) 519-5840, fax (718)
519-4240 or e-mail
imnf@bethabe.org
About the IMNF:
The IMNF is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3)
organization and a member of Beth Abraham Family of Health
Services, a national leader in providing residential, home
and community-based long term care for chronically ill and
disabled adults throughout the
New York metropolitan area. Founded
in 1995, the IMNF is driven by 35 years of clinical
observations on the actual effects of music on different
types of physical and neurological trauma. Directed by
renowned music therapist Dr. Concetta M. Tomaino, with
medical guidance from distinguished neurologist Dr. Oliver
Sacks, its distinctive setting allows researchers to not
only apply their theories, but to follow patient
rehabilitation in the long term.
The Institute actively collaborates with
researchers and practitioners at other leading organizations
to advance world progress in understanding and applying the
power of music to promote healing and wellness. Some of the
Institute’s most promising research has been in the areas of
music and language, memory, and recovery from nerve injury –
leading to groundbreaking discoveries as to how music
therapy can heal.