Between Science, Artistic Practice, and Health: Exploring the Harmony of Music and Social Connection
In a collaboration with Music on Main, join us for an enlightening event where we understand how music and neuroscience intersect to explore the profound impact of music on our well-being and social connections.
Music making, the embodiment of collaborative communication, is built upon deep listening and intuitive coordination. As a pianist, Erika Switzer's work has offered many lessons in compassion, healing, and the joyful connection of mind, body, and spirit. Erika looks forward to sharing her experiences with the BC Brain Wellness Program.
In tandem with Erika's talk, Mikey Jose's will talk about the neuroscience behind music’s impact on brain health outcomes, with a focus on the social/emotional impact of music. Understanding what may be going on in our brains while we engage with music may reveal how and why music continues to be used as a tool to connect and mediate emotions in both healthy and clinical populations.
Music on Main
Music on Main is a Vancouver-based, internationally-acclaimed concert presenter and producer.“Music that brings us together.” That’s our mandate. At Music on Main (MoM), our mission is to connect people by developing artists’ and audiences’ relationships to music, to each other, and to themselves.
We’re proud to call Vancouver, BC home. Since its founding in 2006 by Artistic Director David Pay, MoM has led the country in presenting locally, nationally, and internationally-acclaimed musical programming. Music on Main is dedicated to producing classical, new, and genre-bending music in environments that are both casual and stimulating. With the goal of integrating concert music into the lives of its audiences, Music on Main adopts innovative and refreshing formats for concert-going that create social environments and build community. We’re committed to creating nimble, responsive, and inspired digital and in-person opportunities for artists and audiences to connect, break barriers, share in great music, and ‘listen, together’.
Speakers:
Mikey Jose
Mikey Jose is a PhD Candidate in Neuroscience at UBC. His research explores what goes on “under the hood” of our brains as we listen to rewarding/motivating music, and he continuously strives to bridge the gap between the arts and health/medicine. Mikey is passionate about validating the crucial role that music plays in everyday life and clinical settings, and has received many opportunities to share this passion as a TEDx speaker, invited panelist and presenter at several international conferences, and Co-founder of the UBC Brain and Music group. Outside of his academics, Mikey is a composer, songwriter, and musician, and has accumulated over 6 million streams in 176 countries through his solo music project. His passion for creating music and deep interest in neuroscience intertwine, driving him to understand more fully the incredible holistic power of music.
Erika Switzer
Erika Switzer is an accomplished collaborative pianist who performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, such as New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Frick Collection, and the Kennedy Center. Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” (New York Times), and “intelligent, refined, and captivating” (Le Monde). She has won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions. Switzer is a cofounder of the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries, which curates opportunities for art song creators, performers, and scholars through innovative initiatives that capture the stories of diverse communities. She is assistant professor of music at Bard College and director of collaborative piano studies at the Conservatory, and holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School.