Dr. Eggerding Explores ‘Music and Mind’ with Renée Fleming
When famed soprano and arts and health advocate Renée Fleming takes the stage in Greenville on April 2, 2024, Converse Assistant Professor of Music Therapy Liz Eggerding, PhD, MT-BC, will be among leading local scientists, physicians, and practitioners joining her for an illuminating discussion that will include the latest findings about this growing field.
From Alzheimer patients and those with Parkinson’s disease to young people battling depression, the documented impacts of music on the mind are profound. Scientists continue to use music to better understand the brain’s complex functioning.
Music and Mind, presented in more than fifty cities around the world, comes to the Peace Center on April 2 at 7:30 p.m. and explores the benefits of music and the impact that the arts can have on members of our broader community. Artist and music therapist Kyshona Armstrong, MT-BC, and Ketan Jhunjhunwala, PhD, will join Fleming and Eggerding.
“Having worked in psychiatric and community mental health settings for many years, I am passionate about the use of music and music therapy to promote symptom management, trauma recovery, and wellness.”
Dr. Liz Eggerding
“I am excited to join Ms. Fleming, Ms. Armstrong, and Dr. Jhunjhunwala onstage to discuss music, music therapy, and mental health,” Eggerding said of the opportunity to help guide this critical discussion. “Having worked in psychiatric and community mental health settings for many years, I am passionate about the use of music and music therapy to promote symptom management, trauma recovery, and wellness, among other goals. Ms. Fleming is an incredible advocate for music’s role in health care and healing, and I am honored to represent the music therapy profession and Converse University at this event.”
Fleming, recently named a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, is a leading advocate for the powerful connections between the arts and health. As Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she has spearheaded the Sound Health collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Fleming also partners with other leading organizations and initiatives to bring attention to research and practice at the intersection of music, health, and neuroscience. Her new anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, will be published by Viking Penguin on April 9, 2024.
Dr. Eggerding has more than 20 years of clinical experience as a music therapist, internship director, and educator. She has created music therapy positions at skilled nursing facilities in New York and Virginia. Liz worked for ten years at Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, VA, serving adults with severe and chronic mental illnesses; she established their first music therapy internship program and expanded music therapy services in the civil admissions, forensic, and gero-psychiatry programs. Before coming to Converse, she taught at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS, where she helped establish the MUW Music Therapy Clinic.
Dr. Eggerding holds a dual Bachelor of Science in Music Therapy and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia in Fredonia, NY, a Master of Science in Music Therapy from Radford University in Radford, VA, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Her dissertation was titled “Therapeutic Presence in Music Therapy Education: An Arts-Based Phenomenological Inquiry.”