Music and the Healing Arts
Music & Medicine
The intersection of musical performance and clinical science offers a powerful, evidence-based pathway to enhancing patient outcomes and supporting healthcare sustainability.
Beyond the Podium
Peter Shannon is recognized as a global leader in the integration of Music and Medicine. Over more than a decade of active field research and practice, he has bridged advanced neuroscience, psychotherapeutic models, and live musical performance to unlock measurable physiological outcomes in clinical settings.
Combining the performing arts with the healing arts
The son of a physician, Shannon hails from a long-line of medical professionals. Combining the performing arts with the healing arts, he has developed performance programs for cancer center patients including children receiving inpatient care and individuals in hospice care. Through a specially developed, evidence-based curriculum focusing on communicating with compassion, Shannon, in collaboration with physician Dr. Jacqueline Huntly, has developed a program to train musicians to work effectively in a healthcare setting. Additionally, he has adapted Mozart’s The Magic Flute specifically for sick children. For more on Shannon's music and healing visit www.theAIMH.org
Jonas and Jonathan Salk
“Peter Shannon is doing essential work in the alleviation of suffering, not only for the sick but for those who care for the sick. His work is seminal in bringing together the creative world of the arts and music with that of science and medicine. This kind of integration of art and science - of rational thinking and visceral feeling - is right at the heart of the work we need to do in order to adapt to changing conditions as we move into an uncertain future. It is a concrete expression of the ideas of the late Jonas Salk as expressed in his books ‘The Anatomy of Reality: the Merging of Intuition and Reason’ and ‘A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future.’ I fully support this important project.”
Jonathan Salk
Academic Affiliations
Peter Shannon serves as Affiliate Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Mercer University School of Medicine.
In 2024, he was appointed Visiting Instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine (CCARE) under the mentorship of Dr James Doty.
He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Benson-Henry Mind Body Institute At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
