WHAT: Psychiatrist-concert pianist Richard Kogan, M.D., performs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Through the universal language of music, Dr. Kogan explores the personal, medical and psychological history of famous composers who created great art despite monumental personal challenges. This concert-lecture will focus on the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Dr. Kogan’s visit is part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the UT Health Science Center.
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 12, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Holly Auditorium at the UT Health Science Center, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio.
WHO: Music and medicine come naturally to Dr. Kogan. His mother, a one-time music teacher, started him on piano lessons at age 4. His father, a gastroenterologist, took him on medical rounds.
The younger Kogan graduated from the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College with concentrations in piano and cello. He then double-majored in music and pre-medicine at Harvard College, where his classmates included cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Lynn Chang. He went on to Harvard Medical School, where the dean created a special five-year schedule for him that included time off for concerts between rotations.
More than a decade ago, Dr. Kogan was asked to give a symposium on musical creativity and mental illness to the American Psychiatric Association. As he studied the lives of famous composers, he recognized symptoms of mental illness and the effect these disorders had on the composers’ art. He has since performed in lecture recitals worldwide.
Dr. Kogan has a private practice of psychiatry in New York City and is affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College as co-director of its Human Sexuality Program. He also co-chairs the Weill Cornell Music and Medicine Initiative.
NOTES: The presentation is free and open to the public. For details, visit www.texashumanities.org.