Conductor explores music’s healing touch
| Published: | February 24, 2010 |
| Source: | Boston Globe |
| Location: | United States (Massachusetts) |
| Category: | Event |
| Media: | Photo(s) |
As a concert violinist and Newton Symphony Orchestra conductor, James Orent knows how music can lift an audience’s spirits. But while watching too many friends and family members battle life-threatening diseases, he came to wonder about another possible impact: music’s power to heal. This weekend he shares his fascination via a health fair and a concert that take a look - and a listen - at music and the mind-body-spirit connection.
The Newton Symphony Orchestra Wellness Fair will start at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, with the day’s offerings including talks by music therapists, medical researchers, and stress management experts, as well as alternative therapy demonstrations and exhibition. And at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Rashi School in Newton Corner, Orent conducts the orchestra in “The Healing Power of Music,” a concert that presents 14 short selections that helped others through illnesses or emotional difficulties or simply to relax or meditate.
In our everyday lives language and instrumental music are obviously different things. Neuroscientist and musician Ani Patel is the author of a recent, elegantly argued offering from Oxford University Press, Music, Language and the Brain. Oliver Sacks calls Patel a "pioneer in the use of new concepts and technology...