The American Psychoanalytic Foundation (APF) offered support to a gamut of activities in the fiscal year 2015 (the fiscal year APsaA recently ended): providing an intimate concert for our members; funding initiatives exploring the trauma of human trafficking; and offering psychoanalytic insights to music educators on stage fright and other emotional issues in performance.
The piano at the Waldorf Astoria never sounded better as APF had a rare opportunity to sponsor an intimate solo piano performance by Louis Nagel last January especially for APsaA members attending the 2015 National Meeting.
An audience of APsaA attendees filled the Vanderbilt Room to capacity at the Waldorf in New York City for the hour-long concert, which took place on Saturday, January 17. Louis Nagel, a professor of piano and piano literature at the University of Michigan since 1969 and spouse of APsaA member Julie Jaffee Nagel, often fits in performances with concert orchestras throughout the U.S. along with his teaching duties, so it was an opportunity not to be missed when he offered to do a concert for the National Meeting, provided a time and location could be worked out. The Steinway Hall, Nagel's first choice for its quality pianos and wonderful acoustics, was closed due to relocating, but the Vanderbilt Room at the Waldorf was available and the hotel agreed to tune the piano to Nagel's specifications.
Nagel presented a program of Beethoven that included “Rondo in C Major”; “Opus 126 Bagatelles”; and “Opus sonatas #1 and #2” (the “Moonlight”), chatting informally with the group between the musical selections. “They were an enthusiastic audience, informed and attentive,” said Nagel. “Many seemed very surprised to have access to the music in this kind of casual setting, and they lingered afterwards to ask good questions.”
The foundation took up serious issues during 2014 as well. The APsaA Committee on the Status of Women and Girls' proposal to provide education and outreach on the social issue of commercial sex trafficking of women and children in the U.S. received a grant from APF. The grant helped fund a four-hour multidisciplinary seminar at Weill Cornell Medical College on April 10 and was simultaneously broadcast as an online webinar. APsaA members Ruth Fischer and Vivian Pender organized the event and Mark Smaller, president of APsaA, opened the meeting. The presenters, including a victim, health care professionals and a prosecutor, as well as psychoanalysts, explored how the sex trade works in the U.S. and what psychoanalysts can bring to confront this disturbing form of domestic slavery through their unique understanding of trauma, exploitation and abuse.
Julie Jaffee Nagel received another 2014 foundation grant to participate as keynote speaker for the Music Teachers National Association's annual meeting. Her address, “Harnessing the Mind—Physical and Emotional Issues in Music Teaching,” emphasized the whole person who comes to a music lesson. “I have been the only psychodynamic psychologist and now analyst involved in this organization, which has over 22,000 members,” she said. “There have been some behaviorists involved before, but most of the concerns have been physical ones such as tendonitis and other complaints or injuries. But everyone is interested in stage fright.”
Linda R. Benson, lives in Ann Arbor, MI, where she writes features for The Ann Arbor Observer and teaches writing at Wayne State University.