Transform your love for music into a powerful tool for change.
About
The Community Health Musician Certificate empowers musicians and community leaders to use their musical skills to enhance the well-being of others. This program emphasizes expertise, scope, and boundaries of practice, ensuring that community musicians can create experiences that are safe, meaningful, and impactful for themselves and their participants.
Through curated trainings, hands-on fieldwork, and program development support, participants learn to design inclusive, music-based experiences tailored to their communities' needs. This includes using group music experiences to address challenges like isolation, stigma, and lack of agency, especially among older adults, veterans, youth, and those in peer recovery.
The curriculum covers music, health, and well-being; arts in health research and practice; ethical and cultural considerations; musicianship tools; and community program development. The program blends remote coursework with in-person weekend intensives. After completing the certificate, graduates have access to ongoing supervision, networking, and resources, fostering a supportive community as they continue to grow and expand their programs.
When and Where
Training launches with an in-person intensive at Berklee College of Music, January 11–12, and continues for nine months via remote coursework.
Training concludes with another in-person intensive in September 2025.
Cost
$1,500
Who is this for?
- Musicians curious about how music can enhance community health and well-being
- Musicians looking to expand their skills to create impactful, music-based experiences
- Community leaders and arts administrators eager to use music to build stronger connections
- Educators seeking equity-focused approaches to advance arts and health initiatives
- Open to participants regardless of prior education
What can I expect?
- Small, supportive cohort of like-minded peers
- Instruction and mentorship from renowned Berklee faculty and experienced community leaders
- Engagement in online modules focused on mastering and applying essential concepts, such as music, health, and well-being, facilitating music-based experiences, arts in health research, and trauma-informed practices
- Synchronous online guest speaker series featuring experts at the intersection of community, music, and health
- Participants will design and implement community programming with guidance from a dedicated supervisor, and ongoing support in connecting with local community organizations, ensuring their programs are impactful and aligned with community needs
- Two in-person weekend intensives at Berklee’s Boston campus, focusing on best practices in community program development
- Weekly commitment of approximately three hours
- Begins with an in-person intensive: January 11–12, 2025
- Anticipated closing intensive: September 2025
Module topics include…
- Your Brain on Music: Exploring the Connection to Health
- Arts, Health, and Well-Being in America
- Neuropsychology of Music Responses
- Fostering Sustainable Community Partnerships
- Trauma Informed Practices: Cultivating Resilience
- Inclusive Music Centered Program Design
- Facilitating Group Music Experience
- Resource Sharing: Next Steps
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