Boundless Possibility: Gaelen McCormick on the Power of Music to Heal

Gaelen McCormick has experienced the power of music to stir the soul from her time performing double bass in orchestras, including the two decades she spent with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. But it was an illness that led to hearing loss first in one ear, then in both ears that gave her a new understanding of what music can do in people's lives.
McCormick now leads Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM), a program that began in 2018 as a collaboration between the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Eastman School of Music. The four pillar mission of EPAM is to provide education and specialized health care, to use music therapy in clinical settings, to research the impacts of music in health, and to inspire through the integration of music performance in the hospital environment.
Although her hearing loss made it impossible for McCormick to continue performing as a career, her experience in the health care system gave her new appreciation for the power of music not just to move audiences, but to heal them. That perspective has allowed her to continue to use music to illuminate these ideas for students, and move forward the mission of the University to learn, discover, heal, create, and make the world ever better.