Dr. Martha Summa-Chadwick joins us to discuss the sometimes-surprising way music affects brains and bodies, and how biomedical music techniques can be used to help people with neurological challenges. She and other musicians are participating in a free concert on February 2nd at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
In 2016, Dr. Summa-Chadwick discussed some of these concepts at a TEDx Chattanooga event.
ABOUT THE CONCERT ON 2/2/18 (FROM A MEDIA RELEASE):
Several leading regional musical organizations will collaborate in a unique chamber music event on February 2, 2018 beginning at 7:00 pm in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall on the campus of UTC. Musicians from the UTC Department of Performing Arts, and the non-profit organization Music Therapy Gateway In Communications (MTGIC) will combine their talents in a concert designed to educate and entertain the audience on the positive therapeutic outcomes for motor, speech, and cognitive challenges utilizing music as a direct conduit into the brain. A pre-concert lecture discussing music and the brain is scheduled at 7:00 pm, followed by a 7:30 concert featuring Robert Schumann’s stunning Piano Quartet in E flat major, opus 47.
Pianist and MTGIC Executive Director Dr. Martha Summa-Chadwick will be joined by Mark Reneau on violin, Dr. Josh Holritz on viola and violin, Heather Smith on cello, and Dr. Nikolasa Tejero on clarinet for the performance. The first half of the concert features the Schumann piano quartet, composed in 1842 during Schumann’s “year of chamber music.” Schumann wrote much of his music with the help of his imaginary alternate personalities named Florestan (passionate and outgoing) and Eusebius (dreamy and inward), and was afflicted with what doctor’s would probably diagnose today as a severe form of bipolar disorder. The second half of the concert features a group of lighter works by Paquito D’Rivera, Steve Reich, and Astor Piazzolla. These delightful pieces will be highly engaging to the audience and also demonstrate the effectiveness of music in encouraging the body to move with the rhythm, making it difficult not to tap a finger or toe along with the music.
The event is supported by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission to MTGIC as part of the 2017-18 Arts Build Communities grant cycle. Additional sponsoring organizations for the event include the UTC Department of Performing Arts, The UT College of Medicine Chattanooga, Erlanger Health System, Orange Grove Center, and Exceptional Parent Magazine. The concert is free of charge and open to the public. Organizations interested in learning more about biomedical music via MTGIC’s free concert or lecture series can contact Martha Summa-Chadwick at www.mtgic.org or at her personal website, www.marthasumma.com.