Throughout 2023, Matthew Steinfeld, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, was invited to collaborate on the development and implementation of the inaugural season of Well-Being Concerts at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
The concerts “combine world-class musical performances with elements of self-care and mindfulness, animated by evidence that music helps people heal and thrive. Each concert creates an immersive, nurturing space in which audiences and performers share in the soul-nourishing benefits of music, create shared experiences, and explore tools for well-being that last long after the performance,” according to Carnegie Hall.
Steinfeld has served as a host for three concerts, writing concert-specific mindfulness and guided-imagery narratives to be interwoven with each performance and for specific groups of audience members.
On March 5, 2023, Steinfeld was host to Sarah Elizabeth Charles and Jarrett Cherner in a concert for people impacted by the justice system and their families. On June 18, 2023, he hosted a concert along with Alysia Lee, with The Artemisia Trio for hospital workers from New York City's Health + Hospital’s system.
Most recently, on September 20, 2023, Steinfeld was invited to host a Well-Being Concert at Carnegie Hall for the United Nations General Assembly Healing Arts Week with international opera star and Grammy award winner Joyce DiDonato and pianist and assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Howard Watkins. This event was planned with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO). At a reception following the concert, the Lancet Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts was announced.
Steinfeld’s next concert will be Friday, March 15, 2024 hosting Grammy-nominated flutist and professor of composition at Princeton University, Nathalie Joachim. The Berkeley Social Interaction Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of professor of psychology Dr. Dacher Keltner, is partnering with Carnegie Hall this season to study the experience of live concerts.
A former classically trained trumpet player, Steinfeld has written on the acoustic properties of psychotherapy and their uses in clinical treatment.