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Dr. Richard Kogan
Leading Speaker World-Wide
on Music and the Mind
August 4, 2022
The beauty of George Gershwin’s music belies a personality fraught with troubling issues. Dr. Richard Kogan, a Juilliard trained concert pianist and Harvard educated psychiatrist, discusses how psychological factors and psychiatric illness impacted the musical genius of one of American greatest twentieth century composers, George Gershwin. Dr. Kogan will give piano performances of Gershwin masterpieces, including “Rhapsody in Blue,” "Porgy and Bess" and "Summertime". Dr. Kogan has a distinguished career both as a concert pianist and as a psychiatrist. He has been praised for his “eloquent, compelling, and exquisite playing” by The New York Times, and The Boston Globe wrote that “Kogan has somehow managed to excel at the world’s two most demanding professions.” He famous for his compelling lectures and concerts that explore the role of music in healing and the influence of psychological factors on the creative output of composers.
Richard Kogan
Richard Kogan’s career is based on two ancient disciplines that remain central to modern civilization — Medicine and Music. A Juilliard-trained concert pianist and a psychiatrist with an MD degree from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kogan is renowned for his live concert lectures in which he explores the psychological and medical origins of musical creativity in the great composers, interweaving his verbal analyses with performances of their masterpieces.
A master storyteller
Dr. Kogan has given these programs at concert series, music festivals, medical conferences, universities and scholarly symposia throughout the world. He has delivered presentations entitled “The Power of Music in Healing” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “Can Music Heal What Meds Can’t?” at the TEDMED Conference in Palm Springs, “Music and the Brain” at The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, “Psychiatrist at the Keyboard” for the BBC in London, “Mental Illness and the Creative Process” at the World Psychiatric Congress in Berlin, “Schumann: Music, Mood Swings and Madness” at the Japanese Society of Behavioral Medicine in Tokyo.
Psychiatrist
Dr. Kogan regularly gives keynote addresses to medical conferences from the American College of Physicians to the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the American College of Psychiatrists. Dr. Kogan has advocated for the destigmatization of mental illness, presenting programs for organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, the Simons Foundation, the Psychiatric Education and Research Foundation and the Neuroscience Education Institute.
Concert Pianist
Richard Kogan is a Juillard trained concert pianist, and he has performed with leading orchestras from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to Boston, Baltimore, Houston, and Hong Kong among others.
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