WATERTOWN — The Armenian American Medical Association (AAMA) in years past has held programs exploring the role of the humanities in medicine and medical education. The AAMA is proud to rename the talks as the Aram V. Chobanian Medicine and Humanities Lecture Series, in honor of Dr. Aram Chobanian, past Boston University president, past dean of the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and past AAMA president.
Dr. Chobanian and his wife were patrons of the arts and advocated for integrating the arts and medicine and their role in health and well-being. In his later years, Dr. Chobanian turned to composing music, and completed an opera based on Isabella Stewart Gardner. Educational experience in the arts and humanities is known to promote the core skills of doctoring and patient care, including observation, communication, listening, reflection, empathy, teamwork and well-being.
The inaugural event will be held on Thursday, May 15, at the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts. The reception will start at 6 p.m., and the program at 7 p.m. Dr. Aniruddh Patel, a professor of psychology at Tufts University, will present a lecture titled “Music, Emotion, and Brain Health.” Patel studies the cognitive, neural and evolutionary foundations of musicality. His 2008 book, Music, Language, and the Brain (Oxford Univ. Press), won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, and his 2015 lecture series for The Great Courses, titled “Music and the Brain,” has reached a wide audience. Renée Fleming invited him to contribute a chapter on musicality, evolution and animal responses to music to her 2024 book, Music and the Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness.
Next, Dr. Justin Casinghino, Dr. Chobanian’s music teacher, will offer remarks on the role of music, specifically in Dr. Chobanian’s life. Following the lecture, the audience will experience a live, immersive performance featuring visual artist Kevork Mourad, whose real-time digital artwork will evolve in response to a live string quartet led by violinist Haig Hovsepian.
During the evening, the AAMA will present an award to Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, associate clinical professor of medicine and pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine and founder and president of the Children’s Music Fund, as a healthcare professional who exemplifies Dr. Chobanian’s dedication to the arts and medicine.
This year’s program is about more than appreciation for the arts; it is about understanding the arts and humanities’ essential role in human health and well-being.
