About Backbeat Bruins
Backbeat Bruins is a UCLA student-led organization founded in 2024 that organizes live live music performances in hospitals, senior care facilities, and other healthcare environments in California. Performances are adapted to the context of each site and may range from solo to small-group formats, with audiences varying in size from small gatherings to larger group settings.
The initiative is grounded in the idea that shared musical experiences can support emotional engagement and social connection, particularly in clinical and care-based settings. Performances are designed for intimate environments and emphasize live interaction between musicians and audiences, rather than passive listening alone.
While many members are trained musicians, Backbeat Bruins is supported by students who contribute through event coordination, outreach, and partnership development. Together, members work to create consistent, well-organized musical experiences that are responsive to the needs and context of each site.
Backbeat Bruins is not a clinical or therapeutic program. Instead, it serves as a community-based initiative that explores how live, socially embedded music functions in real-world healthcare settings, with the long-term goal of informing future work at the intersection of music, well-being, and mental health.
Founder’s Spotlight
Michael Cicelski is a UCLA sociology major and the founder of Backbeat Bruins. A classically trained cellist, his interest in the intersection of music and mental health is informed by prior work as a behavioral technician supporting children with autism spectrum disorder, where he gained experience with evidence-based behavioral interventions and approaches to emotion regulation.
Michael currently volunteers at UCLA Health and works as a research assistant in behavioral neuroscience and neuroimaging at UCLA, including in the Fanselow Laboratory (fear learning and emotional memory) and the Neuroimaging and Addiction Treatment Laboratory. His academic interests center on anxiety neuroscience, emotion regulation, and the role of music in mental health.
Through Backbeat Bruins, Michael helps organize consistent, thoughtfully structured live music programs in hospitals and retirement homes while engaging with broader questions about how socially embedded musical experiences function in real-world care settings. He views the initiative as a community-based platform for learning that may inform future research at the intersection of music, mental health, and translational psychiatry.
Michael Cicelski — Founder & President
🎹 Aiden Jahangiri — Co-Founder & Vice President
Aiden Jahangiri is a UCLA graduate in psychology on the pre-med track and a co-founder of Backbeat Bruins. Within the organization, he helps coordinate performances, recruit musicians, and build partnerships with hospitals and senior care facilities.
Aiden’s academic background in psychology informs his interest in community-based approaches to mental health and well-being. Through his leadership role in Backbeat Bruins, he contributes to the development of structured, sustainable music programs in healthcare and senior living settings.
Nupur is a UCLA psychology / pre-med student and dancer who co-founded Backbeat Bruins to spread joy through art at healthcare facilities and nursing homes. She has performed, choreographed, and taught a wide range of dance styles for numerous events.
Passionate about mental health, she acts as a leader for multiple national organizations such as Mann Mukti, advocating for South Asian mental health, as well as the Body Empowerment Project, spreading awareness about eating disorders and body image. She also volunteers at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, providing companionship to geriatric patients. These experiences and more have led her to explore new ways of improving mental health (like engaging in art!) among vulnerable populations.
Nupur is excited to pursue a career in medicine and bring her creativity and compassion to the world around her.
