A jazz concert with performances from the cast of the 2014 Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical set the stage in September for the ninth annual “What a Wonderful World” Awards event held by the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Each year, the Center honors extraordinary health care advocates, musicians, and patients.
Dancer-choreographer Mercedes Ellington, the granddaughter of Duke Ellington, and actor Kevin Bernard presided as co-emcees at the event, which included cocktails, and a silent auction to benefit the Center’s clinical programs for adults and children.
The Louis and Lucille Armstrong Music Therapy Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, established nearly two decades ago as part of the jazz legend’s legacy, was the foundation for the expanded programs of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, created in 2005. The Center’s team treats patients using the most current music psychotherapy techniques in areas such as meditation, pain management, sedation, and breathing modalities.
This year’s award recipients were:
Jon Batiste, a gifted musician and entertainer whose music spans several genres including jazz, blues, pop, rock, soul, R&B, funk, hip-hop, and classical.
Ann-Marie Dassler, NP, RN, and Aimee Telsey, MD, who collaborated with the Armstrong Center’s Director, Joanne Loewy, DA, MT-BC, LCAT, on a study on music therapy in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), published in the April 2014 issue of Pediatrics. Ms. Dassler is a nurse practitioner who has worked in Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s NICU since 1994. Dr. Telsey is the Associate Director, Division of Newborn Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Gweneviere Mann, a musician and patient who has participated in the Armstrong Center’s music therapy clinic since 2012.