Dr. John McGuire spent 2022 and 2023 focused on the topic of musician health and wellness. The Colorado State University associate professor of horn presented an "Wellness and Self-care for Artists" at the 2022 Northwest Horn Symposium, held in April at the University of Idaho, and again at the 2022 International Horn Symposium held in Aug. at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Dr. McGuire states that musician's wellness is an under-researched topic despite obvious impacts to overall wellbeing; however, he believes that students are at an age where they can start creating habits to grow an understanding of self-care practices that 1) are specific to musicians and 2) help them to keep making music in search of a career path that is healthy and sustainable.

In his session, Dr. McGuire explained the four dimensions of wellness as they relate to musicians: physical social emotional and financial. He facilitated discussion around the principles of wellness for artists as taught at the university level, and also shared resources to apply with students, from a brief rehearsal break to long-term tactics for struggling students.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, Dr. McGuire brought his passion for wellness to the CSU Office of Human Resources in his awarded role as Health and Wellness Fellow, part of the Presidential Leadership Fellows Program at Colorado State University.

During the year, Dr. McGuire project-managed a campaign focused on the increased awareness and education of financial, mental/emotional, social, and physical well-being health initiatives to empower the Ram workforce. Read more about the Fellows program at president.colostate.edu/

Finally, the College of Liberal Arts featured McGuire in the scholar's conversation series.

In this video, we connect an artist and a scholar in the College of Liberal Arts to talk about how art connects with health for CSU's thematic year of health in 2022-2023. Associate Professor of Music John McGuire and Assistant Professor of Philosophy Domenica Romagni speak about the importance of a holistic approach to learning that puts well-being at the forefront. McGuire and Romagni address the need for the consideration of the whole person over one’s identity as a performer or academic.