The Peabody Post

Peabody Conference to Explore how the Mind Finds Meaning in Music

Renowned musicians and leading scholars will come together to explore the science of the power of music in an international conference at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, January 30-31.

The two-day Music, Mind, Meaning conference will feature a special duo performance by Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas, chair of Jazz Studies at Peabody. David Huron, distinguished professor of arts and humanities at the Ohio State University and author of Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation, will deliver the opening keynote and lead a panel discussion with Iyer and Thomas.

Keynotes will also be offered by noted music cognition scientists Aniruddh Patel, author of Music, Language and the Brain and recipient of the 2009 Music has Power Award; and Isabelle Peretz, founding co-director of the international laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research. Additional speakers include Charles Limb, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a faculty member at the Peabody Conservatory. Presentations and posters will explore the relationship between music and science by examining issues of expectation, creativity, evolution, culture, language, emotion and memory through the lenses of cognitive psychology, musicology and auditory neuroscience.

Experimental electronic music duo Matmos will give the closing performance.

Supported by a grant from the Brain Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Music, Mind, Meaning conference is open to the public, with a conference registration fee of $100. All conference events will take place in the George Peabody Library and Leith Symington Griswold Hall on the Peabody campus in Baltimore. Please visit www.mmmbaltimore2014.org to register and for more information.

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