Hopkins at Home(wood) - The Sound of Care: Music Meets Medicine

Named one of Musical America’s 30 Music Professionals of 2019 for her work linking music and medicine at Johns Hopkins, Associate Dean for Innovation in the Arts and Health Sarah Hoover is responsible for advancing initiatives that link the performing arts and health within the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and entities within the university and Baltimore community. Since her arrival at Peabody, Hoover has advocated for the health of Peabody’s musicians and dancers through developing curriculum and co-curricular programs to prevent injury and optimize performance, facilitated the creation of the Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists, and supported the start-up of a research lab in performance science. With partners at Johns Hopkins Medicine and in collaboration with Peabody’s first Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Dr. Kris Chesky, she is laying the groundwork for a transdisciplinary convergence at the intersection of performing arts and health, encompassing research, clinical care, education, and advocacy to advance health in and through the performing arts.

Hoover’s research in the field of arts in health has led to the development of bedside and lobby music programs at Johns Hopkins Hospital as well as creative aging residencies and sensory-friendly concerts. She has launched Peabody Prescribe, a community arts entity within the Preparatory offering arts experiences to support health and well-being developed in collaboration with researchers and clinicians from Johns Hopkins Medicine. Along with her book, Music as Care: Artistry in the Hospital Environment, the leading text for preparing classically-trained musicians to work in hospitals, these clinical and community programs build educational and experiential career pathways for artists in health contexts. To advance professionalization of the field, Hoover serves as a member of the board of the National Organization for Arts in Health, where she is leading the development of a certification process for artists in healthcare.

Hoover is a graduate of Yale University and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from Peabody. She received additional training in voice science and holds certificates in Arts in Medicine and Performing Arts Medicine.

Lara Bruckmann trained as a classical singer at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and The New England Conservatory of Music before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was a regular fixture on opera and concert stages, collaborated heavily with composers, and explored musical space-making though cabaret and experimental theater projects. Over her time in California, she also was on the voice faculties of Oakland Youth Chorus, Oakland School for the Arts, and San Francisco Community Music Center, was the Music Director of First Congregational Church Oakland, and maintained a large private voice studio. As the founder of Arts First Oakland, she secured partnership from numerous established arts organizations to create a non-profit anchored in collaborative event production, venue development, and resource sharing.

With the birth of her first child and a cross-country move to Baltimore, Bruckmann decided to lean more deeply into her lifelong interests in science, well-being, and research by adding nursing to her resume. Bruckmann began her nursing career in obstetrics at University of Maryland Medical Center and was certified in Maternal and Newborn Nursing before moving to oncology research nursing at Johns Hopkins, where she managed clinical operations of various trials on adult leukemia and multiple myeloma.

Now applying the breadth of her background to the Arts in Health space, Bruckmann builds training and professional pathways for musicians to serve patients, families, and staff in healthcare environments.

Kerry Devlin, PhD, LPMT, MT-BC (she/her) is senior music therapist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Music & Medicine, where she has the honor of co-constructing music therapy encounters and research projects in adult neurology, critical care, and pediatric anesthesiology and critical care. Kerry received her PhD in Music Therapy from Aalborg University, exploring the impact of perspective-taking on music therapy research, education, and clinical practice through a four-article series. As a disabled clinician, Kerry understands the unique experience of moving through the health care system as both a patient and a provider. She is passionate about amplifying the lived experiences of therapy participants through co-designed and co-authored research.

Kerry has taught undergraduate courses centered on music therapy clinical practice, community music practices, telehealth music therapy, and inclusive music education pedagogy at Shenandoah University and the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Her research has been published in Music Therapy Perspectives, The Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, and Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. Kerry co-edited the book Music Therapy and Music-Based Interventions in Neurology: Perspectives on Research and Practice published by Springer, which offers wide-ranging perspectives from over 40 authors on the use of music to support the physical and psychosocial needs of people living with neurological diagnoses.

Junxin Li, PhD, MS, BS, RN, FAAN, works to promote health and well-being of older adults, particularly by understanding how physical activity and sleep affect cognitive function. Research interests include the associations between daytime activities, sleep, and cognitive function; the biological mechanisms for these associations; the short- and long-term impacts of daytime napping on cognitive functions; and testing individually tailored interventions implementing mHealth technology to promote healthy aging.