Wellness at Eastman is a monthly seminar series from Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM) featuring artists and clinicians speaking to physical and mental wellness for performing artists, inspired by the Healthy Conservatoires movement in Europe.
The next Wellness at Eastman seminar will be on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at 6 p.m.: Music Making, Mental Health, and the Identity of the Professional Musician, presented by Dagmar Kaufmann, PhD, and Anthony Dean Griffey, MM, DHL.
The association between music-making and mental health is complicated for professional musicians and conservatory music students, who must thrive in competitive environments. But positive mental health is an integral part of performing music at a high level, and there are opportunities to attend to and strengthen one’s mental health.
Register for the Zoom link and you will get a reminder for the program and the link to attend on Zoom.
Wellness at Eastman seminars are held monthly in Howard Hanson Hall (on the fourth floor of the Eastman School of Music main building) and on zoom. To register for the zoom link, click here. For more information, or to request accommodations, contact EPAM Program Manager Gaelen McCormick at gmccormick@esm.rochester.edu or (585) 274-1233.
About the Presenters
Dagmar Kaufmann received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Florida, graduating summa cum laude and with psychology honors.
Prior to continuing her education, she worked as a crisis counselor in an inpatient emergency mental health facility in Tampa, Florida, and as a program evaluator for the Pinellas County School District. She then moved north to pursue graduate studies in Clinical Psychology at the University of Rochester, where she received her master’s degree in 2002 and her doctorate in 2008. Kaufmann completed a predoctoral internship at this University Counseling Center (UCC) in 2002–2003. She also acquired further training experiences during a year at the Rutgers College Counseling Center in New Jersey before returning to Rochester and to UCC in 2005. In 2007, Kaufmann took on the role of outreach coordinator at UCC, in addition to providing individual, couple, and group therapy, outreach and consultation services, and involvement in supervision and teaching.
Kaufmann’s interests include women’s issues, interpersonal relationships, couples, sexuality and gender identity, international student adjustment, and grief and loss. Her research interests are focused on adolescents’ socio-emotional wellbeing, parent-child relationships, peer relationships, as well as resource factors and protective processes associated with resilient outcomes in high-adversity environments.
American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert and recital stages around the world. The combination of his beautiful and powerful lyric tenor voice, gift of dramatic interpretation and superb musicianship have earned him the highest praise from critics and audiences alike.
He has appeared in the world’s most prestigious opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Paris Opera, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, and the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan. His many roles include the title roles in Peter Grimes, Idomeneo, Oedipus Rex, and Kurka’s The Good Soldier Schweik; Florestan in Fidelio, Erik in Die Fliegende Holländer Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, and Jim Mahoney in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
A celebrated concert performer, Griffey appears regularly with many distinguished international orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Halle Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de España in Madrid, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland at the Concertgebouw, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan. He has also appeared in the world’s most prominent festival including the BBC Proms and the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Aspen Music, Edinburgh, Lanaudière, and Saito Kinen festivals. He is also a four-time Grammy-winning recording artist.
Since the start of his career Griffey has taken an active role in many charitable efforts, advocating for arts programs in the Guilford County Public Schools, raising money for the Mental Health Association as well as giving benefit concerts for the “Open Door Shelter” for which Griffey has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the homeless in his hometown. He is also actively involved with the High Point Area Arts Council.