John Kander

Discipline: 
Health-related organization
Organization/Affiliation (no abbreviation): 
Music Mends Minds
Location: 
Los Angeles, CA 90064
United States
Short biography and a description of your interest(s) in music and health: 
John Kander is Co-Executive Director of Music Mends Minds. During a four-decade career as a creative media executive and film writer/producer, he led CBS’s On-Air Marketing Division and supervised numerous, award-winning Motion Pictures for Television. He’s also co-created and produced advocacy series such as “Hiring America”, for military vets transitioning to civilian careers, and served as Chairman of the Gould Center for the Humanities at Claremont McKenna College, his alma mater, and as a Board Member and key volunteer for L.A.-based Care Harbor, the nation’s largest free health clinic.

Music Mends Minds is a non-profit founded in love, that quickly merged with science to harness the power of music therapy and engagement to improve life and health of Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative patients, their caregivers and families. Employed on a macro scale, Music is Public Health!

These links will take you to several brief videos that detail our founding and our impact:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/199YF82REqwkAmfrpVy9yFszbCVXoIC2d/view (8 minute Documentary on our founding)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/health/cnn-heroes-carol-rosenstein-music-mends-minds/index.html (3 minute CNN Heroes 2018)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/health/coronavirus-seniors-dementia-music-cnnheroes/index.html (6 1/2 minute CNN Heroes 2020, with Anderson Cooper)
Collaboration Interests: 
Music Mends Minds is a remarkable non-profit that provides free, live playing and singing opportunities, drum circles and therapist-led virtual group music sessions for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, stroke and other neurodegenerative disease patients, their caregivers and loved ones. MMM was born in 2014, when Carol Rosenstein noticed music was the only thing that sparked her Parkinson’s and dementia-plagued husband, and did what any loving spouse would do: she started a band… The Fifth Dementia Flagship Band! Born out of love, it quickly merged with science, and today, having been honored twice by CNN and establishing music groups nationally and globally in association with Rotary International, MMM aspires to be a boots-on-the-ground partner of research professionals and advocacy organizations in establishing music therapy for this cohort as, not just a personal medical intervention, but a Public Health initiative supported and endowed by both the private and public sectors, making millions of lives better while providing enormous social and economic benefits.

Please contact us a [email protected] or [email protected]. We would love to get acquainted and discover how we might work together.