Jenzi Silverman, MA, PhD

Jenzi Silverman believes passionately in the power of music to heal. She has created and taught courses on music, the brain, and wellness since 2009, for the University of Minnesota Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and community education programs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. She has given presentations and workshops on this topic for numerous groups including public school students, staff at M Health Fairview (UMMC and Ridges), the Metropolitan Activities Professionals Association, and Grand Rounds at the University of Minnesota Department of Neurology. In 2020 she began teaching Music, Health, and Healing and Music for Wellbeing in Times of Stress and Anxiety for the University of Minnesota Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, and added Overview of the Creative Arts in Healing in 2021.

A musician since age 9, since 2005 she has provided music on recorders and ukulele in senior residences, care centers, and hospitals in Minneapolis and suburbs.  Her repertoire includes everything from Renaissance dances to rock and roll. Since 2021, Jenzi has played ukulele Tuesday afternoons in her role as a volunteer environmental musician at the M Health Fairview Clinics & Surgery Center on the East Bank, for oncology clinic patients, families, and staff.

Jenzi holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (2008) an M.A. in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology (1995), and a graduate certificate in Integrative Therapies and Healing Practices (2021), all from the University of Minnesota, and an Associate Diploma in Recorder from Trinity College - London's international exam program (2008).

Jenzi describes her professional background and philosophy this way: “I am fascinated with how the brain works and how the way we think and feel affects our bodies -- and my great passion in life is music, so teaching about music, the brain, and wellness is how I bring it all together!” In 2018 and 2019 she completed classroom training in Medical Musicianship through the Medical Musician Initiative’s annual workshops at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, MA. This new specialty trains musicians in providing appropriate music to help patients in intensive care settings. Jenzi is the first recorderist and the first ukulele player in the world to complete this training. She is also a member of the Medical Musician Initiative’s Executive Board. 

To learn more about how I got to the center and the field of wellbeing, please feel free to read this article https://csh.umn.edu/news/bach-rock-and-roll